Parents, sister of 14-day-old COVID positive infant were also infected

By Jennifer P. Rendon

The parents and sister of a 14-day-old boy who recently died and later tested positive for COVID-19 also contracted the virus.

Only the couple’s other daughter tested negative, said Mayor Jaime Esmeralda of Igbaras, Iloilo.

Esmeralda said they were informed that 18 of the 103 swab samples taken from the infant’s family, Rural Health Unit (RHU) personnel, and close contacts of other COVID-19 positive individuals in Igbaras, were positive for SARS-CoV-2 which causes the disease.

The boy’s father showed mild symptoms while the mother and 17-year-old sister were asymptomatic.

The mother is fully vaccinated after getting her second dose in May 2021.

They were allowed to go on home quarantine as the other child temporarily stayed with a relative.

Meanwhile, Esmeralda said that hospital records showed the infant’s cause of death was “neonatal sepsis secondary to neonatal pneumonia.”

The mayor said they are waiting for the swab results of RHU personnel so that “they could return to work if they are negative for the virus.”

RHU personnel were exposed to the infant after he had his BCG vaccine a few days before he died.

Esmeralda said almost all RHU personnel were exposed at varying degrees – high and low risk contacts – to the boy.

The incident also affected the town’s vaccination rollout.