2-Year-Old 'Healthy' Child With COVID-19 Dies Of Respiratory Failure

A 2-year-old girl in Rome died Sunday of respiratory failure after contracting COVID-19, local media reports said Monday.

The child suffered from respiratory failure at the Bambino Gesù Hospital after being moved there from two Calabrian hospitals in the southern part of Italy.

"It was too late to save her," doctors at the hospital said, according to media outlet ANSA.

The girl, who has been identified as Ginevra Soressa, was first admitted to the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in Crotone. But as her condition worsened on Jan. 28 she was transferred to the pediatric and intensive care unit of the "Pugliese Ciaccio" hospital in Catanzaro. As there was no change in her condition, she was moved to Bambino Gesù Hospital, where she died within a few hours.

"When she arrived at the hospital she was already in critical condition and did not even pass from pediatrics but was immediately sent to have a lung and brain scan because she had had convulsions," a health official was quoted as saying, according to RAI News [Google Translate showed].

The girl had been transferred to the hospital in an emergency flight by the air force.

The child was immediately intubated and was taken to the intensive care unit.

Authorities said "from what the parents reported the girl was healthy," adding an autopsy would clarify details about her death. The autopsy took place Monday at the Inmi Spallanzani in Rome. However, the details are yet to be released.

Ginevra lived in Mesoraca, a town of just over 6,000 inhabitants, with her mother Rossella and her father Giuseppe Sorressa. It remains unclear when the child contracted the virus. It was also not known if anyone else in her family had tested positive for COVID-19.

Italy reported 104,065 COVID-related cases Sunday, fewer than the previous day's 137,147. The number of deaths had reduced from 377 to 235. Italy has registered 146,149 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world. So far, the country has reported 10.9 million cases to date, the health ministry said.