DETROIT \u2014 Skylar Herbert loved dressing up and performing. She adored going to kindergarten. She started reading at age 4. She liked “girly things” and bling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe could take over a room,\u201d her grandmother Leona Pannell Herbert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About a month ago, Skylar started to complain of headaches. Within days, she was hospitalized in the Detroit suburbs, where she was diagnosed with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus<\/a>, and then with a rare form of meningitis. Her brain started swelling, and she was placed on a ventilator. On Sunday, surrounded by doctors and her family, the 5-year-old became the first child in Michigan to die of covid-19 and one of a handful of pediatric deaths in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skylar\u2019s death stands as a heartbreaking exception in a pandemic that has largely spared children even as it ravages older populations and people with underlying medical conditions. She was both young and without known underlying conditions. Her death serves as a reminder that the coronavirus can present peril to people at any age.AD<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Lea este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Michigan, about 1 percent of the 32,967 reported covid-19 cases have been in patients younger than 20, state statistics show. The average age of coronavirus patients who die in Michigan is 74.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her story disproves \u201cthe myth now that children couldn\u2019t get it,\u201d said her father, Ebbie Herbert. The family has agreed that the hospital may use Skylar\u2019s tissue to research covid-19, her mother said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, one of the nation\u2019s major pediatric medical centers, reported a jump in covid-19 admissions last week, when as many as 13 patients were hospitalized with the condition at one point. Over the course of the pandemic, Boston Children\u2019s has admitted 25 children, said Michael Agus, the hospital\u2019s chief of medical critical care. By Monday, the number of patients at Boston Children\u2019s with covid-19 had fallen to 11, with three in intensive care.AD<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Children\u2019s National Hospital in the District reported a steady increase in cases, as did Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. Doctors at both hospitals say they believe the increase correlates to the surge of cases in the broader populations of those cities, though the number of adults infected still dwarfs the number of children testing positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julia Sammons, medical director of the Philadelphia hospital\u2019s Department of Infection Prevention and Control, said fewer than 10 percent of the children who test positive at the hospital require inpatient care. Of those patients who are hospitalized, she said, only about 5 percent have experienced severe symptoms. At Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital, which has been tracking the virus since late February, 1 percent of children who have been tested have the virus. Of those, few experienced severe symptoms, according to infectious-disease specialist Janet A. Englund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe numbers are low,\u201d Englund said. \u201cUntil it\u2019s your child.\u201dAD<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and empirical evidence from doctors at several of the nation\u2019s top pediatric hospitals suggest children, by and large, are less severely affected by the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n