ALABAMA — A four-month-old baby who is infected with the novel coronavirus has been hospitalized in Huntsville, Alabama, according to local ABC affiliate WAAY.
Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children CEO David Spillers told WAAY the infant is their youngest COVID-19 patient.
"I think that probably the news today is we now have five children that are COVID positive that are in the hospital, so if you think this doesn't affect young people it actually affects young people," Spillers said during a press conference Wednesday. "Some of those children are only months old. So it's the first time we've seen that during the pandemic."
Spillers said he's concerned about how the children contracted the virus. One of the young patients is a 4-year-old who has been receiving cancer treatment and is now positive for COVID-19.
"I feel very confident the outcomes will be good for those children," he said. "We haven't seen that before, and I think it's just a direct result of more COVID in the community and people engaging around children and infecting them."
For those who are against wearing face masks, Spillers had this message: "I challenge people who resist wearing face coverings to think about this the next time you resist wearing face coverings. Anybody can have COVID. Anyone can give COVID to anyone else because in many cases you could be asymptomatic. If the thought of you accidentally giving COVID to someone, particularly a child with cancer, is not enough reason to put on a face cover, then I don't know what is."
A growing number of Alabama cities are making face masks mandatory, but Huntsville isn't one of them. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle told WAAY he thinks that mandate will come at some point in the future.
