Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli announced today that the state has received reports of four Covid-related deaths among children in the month since Christmas, making up fully one-third of the 12 Covid-related pediatric deaths registered since the pandemic began.
According to Persichilli, three of the deaths were among infants and the fourth was a child under 10 years of age.
“While it is difficult to know for sure if Covid-19 directly contributed to these deaths as opposed to being what is termed an ‘incidental’ infection, I want to remind parents to take all necessary precautions to protect infants from exposure to the virus,” Persichilli said.
Persichelli also said that last Friday witnessed six reports of pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, a Covid-related condition – the most the state has ever received in a single day.
The 12 total pediatric deaths still only represent a tiny fraction of the more than 27,000 confirmed Covid deaths in New Jersey among the broader populace. But with children under five years old still ineligible for the vaccine, infants and toddlers are among the populations most at-risk for catching the virus, especially its highly contagious Omicron variant, which has caused cases to skyrocket across the state in the past month and a half.