A child has died of the coronavirus in California, authorities said Tuesday — the first apparent fatality of someone under age 18 in the country.
“A devastating reminder that COVID-19 infects people of all ages,” Barbara Ferrer, head of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said in announcing three new deaths from the virus in the county, along with 128 more confirmed cases.
The department added of the fatalities in a statement, “One individual was a youth under the age of 18, and two other individuals were between 50-70 years old.”
Health officials later added that it was possible the death was caused by something else. But it was not clear what other factors could have led to the child’s death.
“One of the individuals between 50-70 years old had underlying health conditions and resided in West Adams, the other is from a location that is still under investigation.”
The CDC said in a report last week that less than 1 percent of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US have involved people age 19 or younger so far — and that no one in that group had died to date.
A 14-year-old boy in China was previously reported to have died from the virus, as was a victim in Spain between the ages of 10 and 19.
LA now has reported 662 cases and 11 deaths from the virus.



