B.C. newborn hospitalized overnight with COVID-19; still sick at home

Vancouver -

An infant in B.C.’s Interior was hospitalized overnight Monday with a fever and other symptoms, testing positive for COVID-19 at Kelowna General Hospital.

CTV News spoke with the 11-week-old boy’s mother after images of an infant on a hospital bed, purportedly in Kelowna, began circulating on social media. She has confirmed the photo shows her child after she rushed him to hospital for assessment.

The family, who doesn’t want to be publicly identified, became concerned when the newborn developed a fever and cough earlier this week.

“He is still with a fever, cough (and) sore throat and needs to be regularly medicated to manage pain, to eat and control his fever from increasing,” his mother said. “We came home yesterday at noon when the doctors were comfortable with his urine output.”

She has had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and tested positive for the disease alongside her youngest child. She says her second dose was scheduled for the day the baby came home from hospital.

“I had very mild symptoms,” she said. “I didn’t even know I was sick.”

The family believes they caught the virus at a small, outdoor wedding. They were not contacted by contact tracers and say they discovered the exposure on their own.

“In the interior there have been two children (in hospital) but both of them have been discharged and we’ve had no children in the interior in the ICU,” confirmed provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry at a news conference Wednesday.

“As you know, the Delta variant is more transmissible, we’re seeing transmission in a number of settings.”

COVID-19 SURGING IN OKANAGAN REGION

The Central Okanagan region saw the first surge of infections during the fourth wave, where the Delta variant now accounts for at least 95 per cent of cases, but cases have been growing in other parts of the province for several days.

American doctors have already seen a spike in children hospitalized as the Delta variant ravages the United States, with pediatricians warning children are more susceptible to that mutation of the virus.

Despite this, B.C. health officials insist child infections are low in this province and recently stated they plan to go ahead with a school year “as normal as possible,” even though children under 12 are not eligible for vaccines. 

The newborn’s mother hopes their experience will encourage all eligible British Columbians to get vaccinated to help prevent those too young to get the shot from getting sick.

“(I’m) glad my post and experience did influence some breast-feeding moms to get vaccinated,” she said. “That is why I shared my experience to my social contacts.”