Two-year-old boy tests positive for Covid-19, youngest case in Gurugram

The youngest person to be infected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Gurugram is a two-year-old boy who is believed to have contracted it from his 28-year-old

The youngest person to be infected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Gurugram is a two-year-old boy who is believed to have contracted it from his 28-year-old mother, health department officials said on Saturday. The mother and the child were confirmed to be positive on Thursday and are currently being treated at a private medical college.

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The mother, a resident of Sector 39, was in contact with an infected person in the same locality. “Both the mother and child are doing well,” Dr Jaswant Singh Punia, chief medical officer, said.

The two-year-old and his mother contracted the virus through a 38-year-old woman, also a resident of Sector 39, and the employee of a bank in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. Dr Ram Prakash, an epidemiologist and a member of the rapid response team, said, “The 38-year-old bank employee contracted the virus from a male colleague. The man tested Covid-19 positivein the first week of April, after which all the employees of the branch were asked to remain in quarantine.”

The woman started showing symptoms during the quarantine period and got tested earlier this week. “She was confirmed positive. We tracked down others who have had contact with the woman. Through this process of contact tracing, we collected the sample of the 28-year-old mother and her two-year-old son,” said Prakash. The bank employee is also being treated at a private hospital in the city. “The two-year-old boy is the youngest in the city to have tested positive,” Prakash said.

During contact tracing, the district health team interviews people who have contracted the disease. Explaining the contact tracing process, Prakash said, “The 38-year-old bank employee contracted the virus from a colleague who was asymptomatic. The woman, however, showed symptoms though she contracted the virus from an asymptomatic man.”

He said that people diagnosed with a contagious disease can be asymptomatic but can transfer the virus to others. “A virus transferred from an asymptomatic person can manifest symptoms in others,” Prakash said. “While we do contact tracing, we generally tell people about possible signs and symptoms and ask them to self-isolate for the safety of others,” he said.