NYC detects 110 cases of mysterious coronavirus-tied syndrome in children – most are black and Hispanic

Registered nurse places specimens in a insulated container after conducting a test at a COVID-19 testing site on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, in Harlem, New York.(Mary Altaffer/AP)

Most of the New York City children sickened by a mysterious, potentially-deadly condition linked to coronavirus are black and Hispanic, preliminary data released Friday shows.

The city has detected 110 cases of “pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome” in children as of Friday – up by 58 since Tuesday. A 5-year-old boy has died of the condition in the city already.

Twenty-four percent of them are black, 14% are Hispanic, 10% are Asian and 9% are white, according to incomplete and preliminary data shared by Mayor de Blasio Friday. The race was unknown for 38% of those cases, so the demographic breakdown may change.

De Blasio said the initial findings were “sobering.”

“I’m very much concerned that this looks like it’s tracking the same disparities we’ve seen throughout this crisis and that is something we have to address very, very aggressively with everything we’ve got," he said during a remote briefing.

The city said 54% of kids in the city found with the syndrome tested positive for coronavirus or were found to have antibodies suggesting they were infected and recovered from COVID-19.

Health officials across are scrambling to better understand the new syndrome, though they’ve acknowledged they don’t know why kids are susceptible to it, how long the condition takes to manifest or the likelihood of developing it. The city said doctors should be called if children have symptoms including persistent fever, very red eyes, swollen limbs, rashes, abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhea.

Most of the detected cases, or 35%, were in children under four years old, preliminary data show. A quarter of the case include kids from five to nine years old, 24% were in those aged 10 to 14 and 16% were in young adults from 15 to 21.

The city said 57% of the children with the syndrome are male and 43% are female.

Preliminary data also shows most children with the syndrome live in the outer-boroughs: 37% were in the Bronx, 33% were in Queens, 20% were in Brooklyn, 7% were in Manhattan and 3% were on Staten Island.

Last week the Health Department alerted physicians and providers to look out for symptoms and immediately report cases, warning some might require intensive care for cardiac or respiratory support. Pediatricians were told to immediately refer patients with symptoms of the condition to specialists.

Many children infected have shown symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare illness that often affects young children under 5, causing inflammation in blood vessels, according to the city Health Department.