A 7-year-old from Savannah has died from coronavirus. He did not have any underlying conditions and becomes the youngest Georgian to die from COVID-19.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported the death Thursday, the same day Georgia crossed the 4,000 coronavirus death mark.
Prior to Thursday, the youngest person to die in Georgia was a 17-year-old boy from Fulton County with underlying conditions. Those are the only two deaths in Georgia that were under age 18.
A total of 13,551 children under age 18 have contracted the virus in Georgia and 267 of those have been hospitalized.
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“Every COVID-19 death we report is tragic, but to lose someone so young is especially heart-breaking,” said Dr. Lawton Davis, director of the Coastal Georgia Health Department in a statement. “We know that older individuals and those with underlying conditions are at higher risk of complications, but this is a disease everyone should take seriously. Please watch out for each other, wear a mask in public, wash your hands often, and stay home if you’re sick. A community-wide crisis demands a community-wide response, and we all must do our part to keep each other safe.”
News of the child’s death comes as four Georgia school systems have reopened for in-person learning this week, with two school systems having to quarantine children due to COVID-19 exposure.
In Chatham County, where the 7-year-old boy died, there have been 5,441 cases of COVID-19 and 74 deaths. According to the Department of Public Health, Chatham County has had 485 hospitalizations. The county has a 7-day average of about 101 new coronavirus cases per day.
As of Thursday, there have been 204,895 confirmed cases statewide and 4,026 people have died from COVID-19. The state has reported 20,002 hospitalizations and 3,647 ICU admissions.
