Coronavirus: Condolences flood in for parents of girl, 3, who became Hong Kong’s youngest Covid-related fatality

Girl had no underlying medical problems and was transferred to Hong Kong Children’s Hospital, where she died at 8.37pm on Tuesday
Professor Lau Yu-lung, a paediatrician, notes that young children are more prone to serious complications due to their narrow nasal passages and air tubes

Coronavirus Hong Kong

Gigi Choy

Published: 12:30am, 16 Feb 2022

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Expressions of condolences have flooded social media for the parents of a three-year-old girl who has become Hong Kong’s youngest Covid-related fatality.

The girl had no underlying medical issues and was in critical condition after being admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin on Saturday. She was transferred the next day to an intensive care unit at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital at Kai Tak, where she died at 8.37pm on Tuesday.

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She was one of the two Covid-related fatalities announced on Tuesday night. The other was a 100-year-old chronically ill woman, the city’s oldest Covid-related death, who tested preliminary-positive on Monday.

In an as-yet unverified post widely shared online, a user purporting to be the mother of the three-year-old expressed gratitude to the people who had helped the family in recent days.

“Thank you all for what you did for Keira in these few days … Keira will become our guardian angel,” she wrote. “Thank you for bringing us a lot of joy in the past three years, you are my darling forever.”

News of the girl’s death sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with Lam Tai-hing, chair professor in community medicine at the University of Hong Kong, offering his “deepest condolences to her family” on Twitter.

Another Twitter user wrote: “Rest in peace, little angel. I’m sending all my good wishes to your mom & dad. This #covid wave has been so hard to watch.”

An as-yet unverified post by a woman purporting to be the young girl’s mother thanked those who had helped the family in recent days. Photo: Handout

Professor Lau Yu-lung, a paediatrician and member of the government’s Advisory Panel on Covid-19 Vaccines and Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, earlier said young children’s early stages of physical development made them more prone to serious complications after contracting respiratory viruses.

“Babies or those aged two to three have narrow nasal passages and air tubes, so if there is [secretion] there, serious problems are more likely to develop,” he said.

Last Friday, a four-year-old boy who was sent to Pok Oi Hospital after vomiting and collapsing at his home in Yuen Long was certified dead. He tested preliminary-positive for Covid-19.

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About 17 per cent of new confirmed cases in the past two weeks were paediatric patients – defined as those under 17 – of which 9 per cent were aged six or below, according to official figures.

Hong Kong confirmed a record 4,285 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the total to 30,955 since the pandemic began, with 234 related deaths.

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To cope with the exponential surge of infections, health authorities said the elderly, children and patients in serious condition would be given priority for isolation beds. They urged younger patients with mild or no symptoms to wait patiently at home.

Authorities also announced on Sunday that the inoculation age for the Chinese-made Sinovac jab would be lowered from five to three years on Tuesday, while children aged five to 11 will be able to receive the German-produced BioNTech vaccine starting on Wednesday.