5-year-old from Pueblo with COVID-19 recovering at home

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Health officials in Pueblo County confirmed a 5-year-old boy in the county has contracted the COVID-19 virus. According to the Colorado Department Health and Environment, there are 90 confirmed cases of the virus in the state under the age of ten so far, near 1% of the total number of confirmed cases.

The young boy is currently quarantined at home with his family, and has not been hospitalized. The full extent of his symptoms are unclear at this time.

Health officials in Pueblo says this case of the Coronavirus is further proof that the virus is not an old person’s disease, and young people are not immune.

“I think what this reflects is most children are having mild symptoms and are staying at home sick and may not even know they have the COVID-19 virus,” said Randy Evetts, Pueblo County's Health Director.

However, Evetts says that’s not true for every young person that contracts the virus. 10% of those children under the age of ten that contracted the virus were hospitalized. Fortunately none of those resulted in deaths so far.

However, the virus has claimed other young people. Earlier this month, 21 year old Cody Lyster, a baseball player at Colorado Mesa University, died after contracting the virus. Making him the youngest person in Colorado to fall victim to COVID-19.

“There are some who the virus affects differently regardless of age," said Evetts. "They may have more symptoms or become sicker. We don’t fully understand why that is.”

For now, it’s unclear how the 5 year-old Pueblo boy contracted the virus. Pueblo Health officials are currently launching an investigation.