Coronavirus UK: 3-week-old baby recovers from COVID-19 infection

Peyton Maguire was just three weeks old when she was diagnosed with coronavirus – but miraculously the tiny baby has fought the disease and won.

Hannah Paine

2 min read

April 22, 2020 - 10:44AM

Peyton Maguire already had a battle on her hands being born eight weeks premature in Scotland on March 26.

But less than a month later Peyton was facing the fight of her little life, diagnosed with coronavirus at just three weeks old.

Incredibly though the premature baby fought the virus and won, making her one of the youngest survivors of COVID-19.

Peyton was born via C-section last month after her mother Tracy Maguire was rushed to hospital with pre-eclampsia.

While mum and bub recovered in hospital, Peyton, who was being kept in an incubator in the hospital's neonatal unit, began to show slight symptoms – a “sniffle” and what seemed to be a cold.

Not wanting to take any chances, doctors tested Peyton for coronavirus, with Ms Maguire recalling how traumatic it had been to see a long swab inserted into her newborn’s nose.

Tracy and AJ Maguire with their three-week-old daughter Peyton Maguire, thought to be Scotland’s youngest coronavirus patient to have recovered from the virus to the delight of her parents and the medical team who cared for her. Picture: NHS Lanarkshire/PA Wire

“It was the first time I'd seen my baby cry tears,” she told the BBC. “I held her, I was crying and we were just trying to get each other through the situation.”

On April 15 Ms Maguire received the worst news imaginable – Peyton’s test was positive.

“They said, ‘She’s fine, don’t panic – but she has tested positive for coronavirus,’” she said. “I think the doctor was trying to keep me calm but I was sobbing.

“As much as she was fine I thought, at what point was she with the virus? How is she fighting against it when she’s so wee? It was just the unknown.”

At first doctors planned to keep Peyton isolated in hospital and send Ms Maguire and her husband AJ home.

The UK has been one of the countries worst hit by coronavirus, with more than 129,000 cases and 17,000 deaths. Picture: Isabel Infantes/AFP

“We were told we’d have to stay away from Peyton for 14 days and isolate at home but I pleaded not to be apart from my baby for that long,” Ms Maguire told Mail Online.

“The staff kindly agreed I could isolate with her in the hospital while AJ stayed at home.”

Over the next few days Peyton was given “amazing” care by hospital staff as well as steroids to help strengthen her lungs.

On Monday, Peyton was finally able to go home with her parents after returning two negative tests.

Ms Maguire said she hopes her story can help reassure others, with hospital staff putting their own lives “at risk to make sure my baby was getting fed and cuddled”.

“My message to any mums-to-be is that they shouldn’t be worried about going into hospital to give birth because the staff know exactly what they need to do to protect everyone from the virus,” she told Mail Online.

Cases of coronavirus in babies are rare. A newborn in China was the youngest known case, diagnosed 30 hours after being born.