[ad_1]
Kali Cook was running around her Bacliff house on Monday, happily flapping the red false eyelashes her grandmother gave her for Labor Day. At 2 a.m., she had a fever. By morning she was gone.
The 4-year-old girl died of COVID-19 in her sleep on Tuesday at 7 a.m., her mother Karra Harwood told The Chronicle.
“It took her so quickly,” Harwood said.
The preschooler, a student at Kenneth E. Little Elementary School in Bacliff, is the first child under 10 to die of COVID-19 in County Galveston. Health officials confirmed the death Thursday afternoon.
His sudden death highlights the dangers of the Delta’s latest wave, which has sickened young children at an alarming rate as they return to school. As of Wednesday, 321 children with COVID-19 were hospitalized statewide, including two in the Galveston area.
Kali never made it to the hospital.
She died the day after her mother tested positive for the virus. At that time, her brother and 5-month-old sister were also infected.
Now the family is in quarantine in the house where Kali died. They can’t escape the memory of the curly-haired girl who idolized her siblings and hated having their hair done, Harwood said.
“I always tried to tie knots in her hair, but Kali wanted to be outside catching frogs,” she said.
The 4-year-old started kindergarten last month. She cried at first, realizing that she should leave her mother behind, but she quickly started to like it, telling her mother, “I can’t wait to go to school.
It is not known where the family first contracted the virus. In a statement, Galveston County health officials said they did not believe Kali contracted the virus in her classroom, where “face coverings are highly recommended,” according to school policy.
“We don’t know where he came from,” Harwood said.
Harwood, who is out of work during quarantine, has started a fundraiser to help pay for Kali’s funeral and the family’s medical bills. As of Thursday, friends and strangers had already donated nearly $ 6,000.
She is haunted by her daughter’s rapid illness and fears her 5 month old baby will be next.
“Kali was perfectly fine and then she left,” Harwood said.
[ad_2]
Source link