A 15-year-old boy has died overnight with COVID-19, becoming the youngest Australian to die with the virus.
Osama Suduh, from Sydney’s southwest, was admitted to the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick over the weekend for pneumococcal meningitis, but authorities confirmed he was also diagnosed with COVID-19.
“I can confirm that there is someone admitted to hospital that is 15 and that the cause of their admission, whilst they are COVID positive, is related to another health condition,” chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed.
“The family has confirmed that we can indicate that he has pneumococcal meningitis.”
It remains unclear whether he contracted COVID-19 before or after contracting meningitis.
Image: Supplied
“What an incredible tragedy it was for that young man to die last night,” Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce told Sunrise on Monday.
Osama was up-to-date with his routine childhood vaccinations, but was unvaccinated for COVID-19.
Sydney’s Children Hospital has said that though Osama was a confirmed COVID-19 case, the virus did not cause his death.
The official death toll for the current outbreak in New South Wales stands at 48, while 108 people have died in the state over the duration of the pandemic.
Image: Supplied
