10-year-old dies of coronavirus at Navy hospital in Guam

A U.S. Navy chief hospital corpsman, left, assigned to 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, works with a hospitalman to conduct a turnover of medical checks at Naval Base Guam in May. (Staff Sgt. Jordan E. Gilbert/Marine Corps)

The youngest victim of coronavirus on Guam — a 10-year-old boy — died Saturday at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam.

The boy had underlying health conditions, the Guam governor’s office told Stars and Stripes. He tested positive Sept. 3.

His military connection was not described, according to Stripes.

Guam had recorded 1,891 coronavirus infections as of Saturday, Stripes reported. Of those cases, 249 have been U.S. troops and 26 overall deaths. As of one month ago, only six people had died of coronavirus on Guam.

The number does not include “the approximately 1,150 sickened crewmembers of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which was docked on Guam for two months during an outbreak that started in late March,” according to a previous article by Stripes.

A stay-at-home order for all people in Guam was extended to Friday — ordering those on Guam to remain at home except for essential activities.

“This is news no parent ever wants to receive,” Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said in a press release, noting that this was the hardest announcement she has had to make.

“He was a child, with a full life ahead of him. There is no pain deeper than losing a child … with his passing, we are forced to see the reality that COVID-19 does not spare even the most innocent among us. None of us are immune to this virus, and we need to do whatever it takes to ensure we have no more days of grief.”