7-Month-Old COVID-Positive Baby Who Was On Life Support For 100 Hours Recovers

A 7-month-old baby, who spent 100 hours on life support after testing positive for COVID-19 in India, recovered from the infection and was discharged from the hospital.

Health officials in the state of Gujarat said this was one of the most critical pediatric cases since the pandemic began. Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society-run Gotri hospital discharged the child Tuesday after she spent 13 days in the intensive care unit. The child had been hospitalized for a total of 19 days, authorities said, according to ABP Live [Google Translate showed].

Dr Nimisha Pandya, Head of Department of Pediatrics at the hospital, said the child came down with acute diarrhea, vomiting and shock on Jan. 27. After being admitted to the hospital, the unidentified child developed a respiratory problem. It remains unclear if the child had any pre-existing health conditions. It is also not known if she had contracted the virus from her family members or from someone else.

“The child developed respiratory issues and tested positive for Covid-19 on the fifth day of her admission… She was shifted to the Covid ICU, where we had to manage multi-organ failure and seizures. She needed respiratory support. We had to extubate the child but she recovered slowly and was shifted to the Pediatric ICU after testing Covid-negative,” Pandya said, according to the New Indian Express.

Pandya added this was the first critical child with COVID-19 at the hospital.

India on Thursday reported 30,757 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the active cases in the country to 332,918. According to the Ministry of Health, the daily positivity rate in India has been recorded at 2.61 percent and the weekly positivity rate at 3.04 percent. With the number of cases falling from the average of 100,000, several states have started removing the restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the virus.

The government continued to urge people to get vaccinated, maintain social distance, wear a mask and sanitize hands. Vaccination for the age group 15-18 began in January, with health officials planning to begin vaccination drives for those above the age of 12.