Child under three dies after testing positive to Covid

A child under three is among six deaths of people with Covid on Thursday, as cases climb towards 3000 a day.

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A child aged under three has died with Covid as numbers continue to climb towards 3000 a day.

The cause of the child’s death is being determined following a referral to the Coroner as is standard process.

The child had previously been well, with mild respiratory symptoms.

A woman in her 90s, one man in his 70s, two men in their 80s and one man in his 90s, who tested positive for Covid have also died, bringing the state’s death toll to 491.

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier revealed there are 10 children aged under nine in hospital.

She noted of 89,098 children aged under 11 in SA who had caught Covid since November 23, there had been three deaths, all aged under five which is too young for the vaccine.

“It is very rare but unfortunately this is a nasty virus," she said.

“My deepest sympathy is to this child’s family. Parents who have heard this news will be pretty worried and will be concerned something may happen to their young child if they catch Covid.

“The best thing families can do because we are not vaccinating that age group is to make sure everyone else in the family is vaccinated, and we are being very clear here in South Australia that being vaccinated is three doses.”

Prof Spurrier said there may be potential to follow the United States and vaccinate children under 5 but that would be up to drug companies to apply to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

While the death toll is in the double figures this week Prof Spurrier said there was not an increasing number of deaths as some are from previously unreported cases.

“What I do hope is we actually see a reduced number of deaths through more vaccine being used but also with the oral antivirals that are becoming more readily available,” she said.

There were 2983 new cases of Covid reported in South Australia on Thursday, with 15,960 active cases in the state.

There are 222 people with Covid in hospital, including eight people in ICU. These include 138 people who have received three or more vaccine doses, while 78 people are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and six have an unknown vaccination status.

SA has now had a total of 557,199 cases.

As authorities plead with the public to have their booster shot and run a public awareness campaign, the state has 95.8 per cent of eligible people who have had one shot, 93.9 per cent who have had their second dose but just 72.8 per cent who have had their booster shot.

On Wednesday 9084 people received a PCR test, 1614 PCR tests were positive, while 1369 positive Rapid Antigen Test results were reported.