A teenager from the state’s Southside Health District has become the first child in Virginia to die as a result of COVID-19, health department officials announced Friday.
The child was described as a “teen” and an “adolescent” in a news release issued by the Virginia Department of Health. No other details were provided out of respect for the teen’s family, the release said.
The Southside Health District serves Brunswick, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties.
“On behalf of all of us at VDH, I extend sincere condolences to the teenager’s family and loved ones,” state Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver said in the release.
“No age group is immune from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this unfortunate event, along with the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases we are seeing in some areas of the Commonwealth, is a reminder that we all need to do our part to help slow the spread of virus in the community.”
Twice previously — once in May, the other in August — the VDH mistakenly indicated in its daily coronavirus reports that a child under the age of 9 had died from the disease. Both incidents were due to a typographical error, the agency said.
Across the country, 121 of the COVID-19 deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between Feb. 12 and July 31 had been for persons under the age of 21, the agency said in a report issued earlier this week.
Of those, 78% were people of color and 75% had an underlying health condition, the report said.
As of Friday in Virginia, 2,949 people have died from COVID-19 and 138,702 have tested positive for coronavirus, according to VDH. Across the U.S., more than 198,000 have died and 6.7 million cases have been reported.
Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
