4-year-old girl dies shortly after testing positive for COVID-19 in Galveston County, officials say

GALVESTON COUNTY – As COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide and in the state of Texas, Galveston County is reporting its youngest COVID-19-related death.

Kali Cook, 4, died in her sleep shortly after testing positive for COVID-19, her family confirmed Thursday to KPRC, KSAT’s sister station.

Karra Harwood, Kali’s mother, told KPRC that just one day after Kali tested positive, she succumbed to the virus.

“I just wanted everyone to know it happened so fast,” Harwood said. “At 2 o’clock in the morning [Kali] started to have a fever. My mom came downstairs and asked my fiancee if he could help her take some medicine. We gave her medicine and by 7 am she was gone.

Karra and other members of her family also tested positive for COVID-19, shortly after Kali tested positive. She also confirmed that her family was not vaccinated.

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“I have been tested for COVID and have become positive. I tried to quarantine myself from them. We have a two-story house. They were upstairs and I was downstairs, ”Harwood told KPRC. “My 5 month old baby even has them. I have taken him to the hospital every night since because I feel like they are not getting better and I am terrified.

The Galveston County Health District confirmed on Thursday that Kali’s death was the first death of a child from COVID-19 in the region.

KPRC reports that forensic scientists also determined that the cause of his death was due to the virus.

However, health officials said they would not consider Kali’s death a COVID-19-related death until the autopsy was completed, which began around 1 p.m. Friday.

“[They told me] she died due to Covid, but they are doing an autopsy to see if there is any underlying medical conditions that could have made her go so fast, ”Harwood told KPRC.

As the Delta variant accounts for the majority of COVID-19 cases nationwide, and children under the age of 12 are still not eligible to receive a vaccine, the Galveston County Local Health Authority said it didn’t was no surprise that more children tested positive.

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“Now we see that our largest group of people with COVID are children under the age of 10. So the fact that we have more and more children under the age of 10 contracting COVID, it shouldn’t be surprising that some of them are getting sick. Some of them are hospitalized and others die. So that way, it’s no surprise, ”said Dr. Philip Keizer, of the local Galveston County Health Authority. “It’s very sad. It’s very sobering. I hope this will be an opportunity for people to start putting aside the anger they have about COVID and to realize that it is serious. “

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