Written By: @dawnnnyy_
Emmett Doster, a seven-month-old baby from Kershaw County in South Carolina, has tested positive for coronavirus.
On Tuesday night, the case was confirmed at an Urgent Care in Elgin. He likely contracted the virus from his grandmother, who tested positive for COVID-19 Saturday.
The entire Doster family is required to remain under quarantine until April 1, 2020. According to ABC News, the family is under legal contract with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The Doster family consists of five, including Emmett, a 4-year old and a 2-year old. They have not been tested and are not experiencing any symptoms at this time.
Courtney Doster, Emmett’s mother, shared her baby boy’s story to spread awareness, and it has since gone viral.
Diagnosing Emmett with the virus was far from simple. In the early stages of the outbreak, numerous sources were reporting that the virus was very much more detrimental to older adults.
According to The State, Doster said, “she heard that COVID-19 seemed to mostly spare children. She was surprised when Emmett started showing symptoms, even after being around his grandmother.”
Doster went onto say, “We were told by a lot of people, ‘Don’t worry, because kids can’t get it,’ even though my mom was positive,” she said. “You know, ‘they’re immune,’ or ‘they’re not showing if they are getting it, it’s just that they’re carriers.’ … A lot of people don’t take it very seriously because they don’t think kids can get it.”
Even healthcare workers were unsure whether the adult COVID-19 test would work on such a young child. It took nearly three hours to figure out where to go.
“It’s really sad to watch him. He’s been poked so many times in the last 24 hours, so we are just glad he’s home and hoping he doesn’t take a turn for the worse,” said the mother of three. It was recently reported that Emmett is doing much better, considering his fever is gone.
According to The State, Emmett is one of 125 confirmed cases in South Carolina, and it is very likely he is the youngest. His grandmother, however, was one of the first cases confirmed in Kershaw County.
