Last Monday, Karra Harwood, a woman living in Galveston County, Texas, was diagnosed with COVID-19. By 7 a.m. the next day, her 4-year-old daughter Kali Cook was dead, having been infected with the virus, reported the Galveston Daily News.
Cook is the youngest person to die from a coronavirus-related illness in Galveston County. Prior to Sept. 9, nobody younger than 10 had died from the illness, according to the Galveston County Health District.
Cook's COVID-19 diagnosis was not known until she was examined by the County Medical Examiner. The cause of her death was still under investigation as of Sept. 10, according to ABC 13.
"She was so funny and sassy," said Harwood, according to the Galveston Daily News. "She wasn’t your average little girl. She’d rather play with worms and frogs than wear bows. She was just so pretty and full of life."
Cook lived with her mother, father and older siblings in Bacliff, Texas. She was in pre-kindergarten classes at K. E. Little Elementary, part of the Dickinson Independent School District. The district said she was last in class on Sept. 1, and health officials don’t believe she was infected at school, as nobody else she was in contact with there had the virus.
According to Click 2 Houston, Cook had four siblings, and all of them tested positive for COVID-19.
"Our family has [COVID-19] and is out of work due to it, so we are overly stressed and hurting," said the description of a GoFundMe page set up from Cook’s family. So far, $20,701 has been raised for the family, surpassing the $20,000 goal.
Harwood told the Galveston Daily News she wasn’t vaccinated for COVID-19. As a child younger than 12 years old, Cook was not yet eligible for the vaccine.
In Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott has come out against vaccination mandates, 58% of the population is at least partially vaccinated, compared to 63% nationwide, according to the New York Times as of Tuesday.
"I was one of the people that was anti. I was against it," Harwood said. "Now, I wish I never was."
She said that she tried to stay away from her children after contracting the virus, especially Cook, who tended to get sicker than her siblings. Yet, by 2 a.m. Sept. 7, Harwood’s youngest had a fever, which her family treated with medicine. Hours later, Cook died in her sleep.
Galveston County Local Health Authority Philip Keiser called Cook’s death a tragedy, according to the Galveston Daily News.
"This is a terrible thing, but I think people need to know about it," Keiser said.
While young children do not usually develop severe cases of COVID-19, the delta variant has led to the number of children with positive cases to hit record numbers in Galveston County, with nearly 30% of all cases in children under 12 years occurring in August, according to the health district.
If children start showing symptoms Keiser recommends getting medical care immediately.
According to the Galveston County Health District COVID-19 dashboard, there were 5,818 cases active in the city as of Sept. 12, and 472 deaths had been reported in the county. Bacliff had a total of 1,522 positive cases.
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