There has been a 20-30% increase in the number of children who have caught COVID-19 in the last several weeks, according to Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagen, chief of Community and Societal Pediatrics for UF Health Jacksonville.
“They can get sick, they can spread the disease and they can die from the disease,” said Goldhagen, who has warned the public since the pandemic started that any information it has heard that suggests children cannot get sick is “wrong.”
WJCT News partner News4Jax spoke with Goldhagen Friday on The Morning Show, to learn more about a syndrome caused by a COVID-19 infection that has been discovered in children who have either contracted the virus or were exposed to the virus, but never exhibited any symptoms and therefore, their parents had no idea they had been infected.
An 8-year-old Jacksonville girl died last Saturday. Her father told News4Jax his daughter, Deaurra, developed this syndrome, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, also known as MIS-C.
Dearick Nealy told News4Jax his daughter tested negative for COVID-19 but that the test also showed that she had previously been infected with the virus.
An expanded version of this story that includes a video report is at News4Jax.com.
