Texas city lists newborn's death as COVID-19-related

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A Texas city is reporting the COVID-19-related death of a newborn baby boy whose family told a local television station was only 6 weeks old.

The City of Corpus Christi issued a news release Friday saying health officials had been notified of the infant’s death that day. The city reported the baby as being under the age of 6 months.

A woman identified the infant to KRIS-TV as Isaiah Jeremiah Garcia and said he was her nephew and that he was born six weeks ago. He died Thursday.

“I want people to know that even if you have no symptoms like baby Isaiah did, you could still have the virus," Jacqueline Cruz told the station. "He tested positive and had a fever but was released because the fever had subsided."

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Cruz said her sister, Isaiah’s mom, took him to the hospital because he had a rash and a "little bit of a fever," the station reported.

After being tested for the flu and COVID-19, his results were positive for the coronavirus, according to the station.

Cruz told the station Isaiah had no other symptoms, so her sister went back to work.

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“And then she got a call [Thursday] while she was at work that the baby wasn’t breathing any longer,” she said.

"Isaiah was a very happy baby," she told the station. "There's tons of pictures on my sister's Facebook with him smiling. She took a video of him hours before he passed away. He was smiling -- he was in the car seat, she was playing with him. He was smiling away."

Corpus Christi Public Health District Director Annette Rodriguez told reporters Friday the baby had other health issues, according to the station.

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The station also reported that the baby’s death is being classified as a SIDS -- sudden infant death syndrome -- fatality, but is considered a COVID-19-related death because he was ill with the virus.

The family set up a GoFundMe page that said the infant was diagnosed with the virus on June 30.

Nueces County, which includes Corpus Christi, has experienced a recent spike in COVID-19 deaths, KSAT-TV reported Friday.

It also reported that Corpus Christi has been hit hard by the virus. There have been nearly 6,000 cases in the city and 50 COVID-19-related deaths.

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On Saturday, Texas reached a record high in new coronavirus cases, continuing a recent troubling trend of rising case numbers.