Qatar says three-week-old baby dead from Covid-19

A three-week-old baby has died from Covid-19 in Qatar, the health ministry said on Sunday, reporting a rare child fatality from the illness.

“A three-week-old baby has sadly died as a result of severe infection from Covid-19,” the public health ministry said in a statement.

“The baby had no other known medical or hereditary conditions,” and was the second child to have died in the country since the pandemic began, it added.

Child deaths from Covid-19 are infrequent but health authorities in several countries have registered a rise in childhood infections since the spread of the Omicron variant.

The Qatari ministry said youngsters have generally been less at risk of severe Covid infection than older people, but that “a greater number of children are being infected in this current wave and needing medical care than in previous waves”.

Qatar has officially recorded almost 300,000 cases of coronavirus and around 600 deaths, from 2.6 million residents.

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The ministry reported 3,518 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 among residents and 503 among travellers on Sunday.