Rare syndrome tied to COVID-19 kills 3 children - Cuomo

Rare syndrome tied to COVID-19 kills 3 children - Cuomo

Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday, adding that the state is working with the CDC to investigate the syndrome.

Jillian Kitchener has more.

"...we were laboring under the impression that young people were not affected by COVID-19... we're not so sure that that is the fact anymore." Chilling words from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who, on Saturday, told reporters that three children in the state have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus.

"Toddler elementary school children are presenting symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock like syndrome.

Now, these are children who come in, who don't present the symptoms that we normally are familiar with COVID.

It's not a respiratory illness, they're not in respiratory distress... It's more an inflammation, inflammation of the blood vessels, which can then cause problems with their heart.

And there are 73 cases that the Department of Health, Dr. Zucker, is now studying but the illness has taken the lives of three young New Yorkers." Cuomo did not disclose the childrens' ages or the circumstances of their deaths.

He said New York - which has reported more than a third of all U.S. coronavirus deaths - is now working with the CDC to investigate the syndrome affecting children.

"…Again, as it turns out, these children happen to have the covered antibodies or be positive for COVID but those were not the symptoms they showed when they came into the hospital system." Scientists are trying to determine whether the rare syndrome is indeed linked with the novel coronavirus, because not all children with it have tested positive for the virus.