On Sunday, the Ministry of Health in Qatar announced the death of a three-week-old infant due to "severe COVID-19 infection." Deaths from the coronavirus among children are extremely rare, but health authorities in many countries have reported an increasing number of cases among children since the emergence of the Omicron variant.
The ministry stated in a statement that "a three-week-old infant died due to severe COVID-19 infection." They added that "the infant did not have any other known medical or hereditary conditions." The Qatari ministry confirmed that "the current wave the country is experiencing from the COVID-19 pandemic has included a greater number of children, leading to many of them requiring medical care."
Several countries had previously reported fatalities among children as a result of COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, but such cases have remained extremely rare. Recently, the daily infection count in Qatar has reached nearly four thousand, a number twenty times higher than reported figures in mid-December.
The main group of public hospitals in the country suspended all vacations for medical and administrative staff working with COVID-19 patients at the end of December due to the rise in infections. Overall, Qatar, with a population of 2.6 million, has recorded around 300,000 infections, including approximately 600 deaths.
