HARRISBURG, Pa — A new children’s health condition linked to COVID-19 has now popped up in Pennsylvania, health officials said.
The illness is called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition’s symptoms include a persistent fever that is often relatively high temperature, rash, change in skin color, swollen lymph nodes, red eyes and abdominal pain.
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New York City reported the first cases in the country in April. They now have more than 100 cases and three children have died.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday at a news conference that the Department of Health was aware of 17 reports of the disease in the state. Nine of those have been confirmed, two were determined to not be cases of MIS-C and the remaining six are still being investigated.
Researchers said early treatment leads to a full recovery in most cases.
Levine said 68,637 people have tested positive for coronavirus across the state. That includes 5,159 positive cases in health care workers, 14,852 positive cases in 594 long-term care and living facilities and 2,558 positive cases in the food industry across 177 facilities. Levine said the state continues to see a decline in cases, and about 61% of people are estimated to have recovered from COVID-19.
Gov. Tom Wolf also spoke at the news conference, praising the work of the National Guard members who have been mobilized to help with the state’s coronavirus relief. He said the agency’s work has included running testing locations and helping long term-care facilities.
All of this comes on the heels of state officials announcing that four local counties will be among the first wave of areas moving into the green phase of reopening Friday.
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