Nine children under 4 have COVID-19, almost half are in Miami-Dade, Broward counties

Nine children under the age of 4 have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says children are not at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults and that “while some children and infants have been sick with COVID-19, adults make up most of the known cases to date.”

But it doesn’t mean they are not contagious or are vectors of the disease.

Florida has more than 3,100 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those cases, 22 are children ranging from 5 to 14. Eight are less than 4 years old, according to health department records.

Four of the toddlers live in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

In Miami-Dade, there are two 3-year-old girls who have tested positive for COVID-19. Health officials say it’s still unknown if the girls had recently traveled and did not disclose if they had been in contact with someone who tested positive for the disease.

As of Thursday, they are the youngest in the county to test positive for COVID-19.

The youngest case is a baby boy in Broward county, whose age is listed as zero by the health department. He might be the 7-month-old son of an ER nurse at Jackson North Medical Center in Miami-Dade County, who says she was infected with the disease while at work. Her son later tested positive for the disease.

The baby’s results were announced Tuesday, making him the the youngest person in the state to fall ill with the disease. By Thursday, health officials had confirmed he had come into contact with someone — likely his mother — who was infected with the disease. He is not considered a travel-related case.

Broward also had a 2-year-old girl listed in its cases Tuesday, but that case has since disappeared from the health records. Instead, the county now lists a 1-year-old girl with an unknown travel history. Health officials have not disclosed whether she came into contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease.

It’s unclear if health officials are referring to the same case. Last week, Miami Herald news partner WLRN reported inconsistencies within the Department of Health’s daily COVID-19 data, which at times altered ages, gender, county residency or made cases disappear altogether.

A representative for the Joint Information Center on COVID-19 for the State of Florida told WLRN the inconsistencies in the daily reports were because the data is “provisional and subject to change.”

Miami-Dade, which has more than 600 confirmed cases of the disease, also has six children ages 10 to 13 who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to health records. Three of them traveled to New York, one of the most affected areas in the United States by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The children could be linked to a case relating to Conchita Espinosa Academy. The private school, 12975 SW Sixth St., in Miami notified parents earlier this month that the mother of three students had tested positive for COVID-19, according to WSVN. She had recently traveled to New York.

After this article was published, the school’s communications director, Elisabela A. Valls, told the Herald in an email that the school has maintained communication with parents and is not aware of any other cases.

“To our knowledge as of today, there are no other cases within our community, nor any that are directly linked to the parent affected,” Valls said in the email on Saturday.

Where in Florida are the other toddlers who tested positive for COVID-19?

While some of the confirmed cases in children are linked to travel or contact with someone who tested positive for the disease, none of the toddlers are linked to travel. Only one is known to have contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

As of Thursday, here’s what Florida’s Department of Health says:

▪ A 3-year-old boy in Hillsborough County tested positive for COVID-19 after having contact with someone who tested positive for the disease.

▪ A 1-year-old boy in Brevard County tested positive. The boy had no travel history or contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease.

▪ A 2-year-old boy in Santa Rosa tested positive. He had no recent travel history and had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease.

▪ A baby boy less than a year old in Santa Rosa. He had no recent travel history and no known contact with someone who tested positive for the disease.

▪ A 2-year-old girl in Alachua county tested positive. She had no recent travel history and no known contact with someone who tested positive for the disease.

Can children die from COVID-19?

As of Friday, none of the deaths in Florida were children, but complications can arise.

Despite the fact that 90 percent of the cases of children with COVID-19 in China have been asymptomatic, mild or moderate, almost six percent of the cases presented severe or critical symptoms, according to the World Health Organization.

New recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say mothers with coronavirus should be separated from their newborn babies after giving birth.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles confirmed its first COVID-19 death of someone under 18 and at least one child is known to have died in China from COVID-19 complications.

For tips on how to talk with your children about COVID-19 or for more information about children and COVID-19 visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/children.html