Health & Fitness

Coronavirus May Have Caused New Jersey Infant's Death: Officials

A 7-month-old who tested positive for the coronavirus has died. Officials are looking into the primary cause of death.

Gov. Phil Murphy says the rate of positive tests has risen but remains low overall.
Gov. Phil Murphy says the rate of positive tests has risen but remains low overall. (Rich Hundley/Trentonian)

NEW JERSEY — Officials in New Jersey are investigating the death of a 7-month-old baby who had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said at this point, officials do not know the primary cause of the baby's death.

If it is confirmed the baby died from COVID-19, the infant would be the youngest in the state to die from the virus, Governor Phil Murphy said during a Wednesday news briefing. (Watch the briefing below.)

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Officials released no more information to protect the family's privacy.

New Jersey has reported few coronavirus deaths for people under 18. A 4-year-old child died of coronavirus complications in May, Murphy said. Read more: First Child In NJ Dies Due To Coronavirus

Find out what's happening in Ocean Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But officials have monitored Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a health condition appearing in children. Some doctors think the condition is related to having COVID-19, but the connection is still not clear, the DOH says.

In the same briefing, Murphy announced 378 new coronavirus cases and eight confirmed deaths. New Jersey stands at 183,327 reported cases, 13,989 confirmed deaths and 1,853 probable deaths as of Wednesday afternoon.

Murphy also announced that the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has cleared half its backlog since reopening, Governor Phil Murphy said Wednesday.

The MVC has cleared around 55 percent of its backlog since the agency reopened its facilities July 7 — about 483,000 transactions, Murphy said.

"That doesn’t mean you should feel great about standing in line," Murphy said.

He compared the situation to the backlog many New Jerseyans faced in receiving unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic.

The MVC has also eliminated its backlog in road tests, performing about 40,000 since June 29, Murphy said.

But many MVC facilities remain closed because of Tropical Storm Isaias outages, including those in Eatontown, Freehold, Hazlet, Oakland, Rahway, Rio Grande, Springfield and Turnersville.

New Jersey's spot positivity rate for tests since Saturday increased to 2.57 percent. But the figure remains one of the nation's lowest, officials said.

"At this moment we’re not yet seeing that dramatic pattern that concerns me, but we’re certainly paying attention," said DOH Medical Director Edward Lifshitz.


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