Prognosis
Covid Deaths Among Hong Kong’s Young Children Alarm Parents
- Nearly 2,000 children are hospitalized with Covid in the city
- Mass testing likely to pick up more infections later in March
A child enters a community vaccination center in Hong Kong in February.
Photographer: Chan Long Hei/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Three children under the age of five have died in Hong Kong’s spiraling Covid outbreak, a disproportionately large number that has local parents anxious, though pediatricians say it could just be a grim coincidence.
While the numbers are too low to draw any conclusions, according to experts, the children -- aged 11 months, 3 and 4 years old -- make up nearly 0.3% of the 1,153 fatalities that have occurred in this wave of infections. None had known underlying health conditions. Their deaths are being investigated by the coroner, according to the Hospital Authority.