A 9-year-old girl is now the youngest person in Florida to have died from COVID-19.
Kimora Lynum of Putnam County, Florida, had no underlying health conditions and had not come into contact with anyone who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus when she contracted it, reports CNN.
Kimora began feeling unwell on July 11 and was taken to the hospital by her mom, Mikasha Young-Holmes.
"We took her to the hospital, the children's pediatric," Young-Holmes told WCJB." They did a urine test and took her temperature."
Her temperature was 103 degrees, but Kimora was not tested for the coronavirus.
"I thought they would have jumped on that when they saw here fever," Young-Holmes said.
She was instead diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. About a week later, the family went shopping and returned home to play video games. Kimora then went to take a nap but never awoke.
"I was shaking her, yelling at her," Young-Holmes said. "I yelled at my mom and told her to come in here because Kim is not breathing."
Kimora’s grandmother began CPR on the young girl before the ambulance arrived.
"I was just trying to bring her back. I tried, I tried everything I could to bring her back," Mashell Atkins, the young girl's grandmother, said according to ABC 13.
Kimora died on July 17. Her family was informed of her positive COVID-19 diagnosis after she passed.
"After she had passed away, they tested her, and that's when they told me she was positive for COVID," Young-Holmes told WCJB.
Young-Holmes said she tried to trace back her daughter's contacts to see who she could have contracted the virus from, but she has not been able to figure it out.
"At this point, I have no idea. I'm just still pretty much stuck in the now," she said.
Dejeon Cain, Kimora’s cousin and the family spokesperson, said that she seemed healthy and had not been taken to crowded places where she could have been infected. She did not attend school or camp in the summer and has stayed home for the past few months, according to her family.
Cain said she was outgoing and always smiling.
"She was a happy child, but she didn't even get to live her life," he told First Coast News.
She was her mother’s only child, and Young-Holmes said they shared a special connection.
"We were extremely close. It had just been me and her for a while," she said.
Before Kimora passed, the family had been mourning the death of Theophilus Lynum, the girl’s father, who was shot and killed a few months ago. The investigation into his death is still open. Cain said Kimora was still grieving her dad when she got sick.
“She still was joyous and had that grace on her. She was an incredible kid," Cain said. "When she would see her father, she would just smile. She would be so happy. That was the toughest, hardest day for her in her life."
Now, the family is speaking out against schools reopening and requiring in-person teaching in the fall, as they believe a number of families could experience what they went through with Kimora.
"It hit home, and I think a lot of people out here are not understanding that we have to take this thing seriously," Cain said. "We have to be prepared."
Kimora is the fifth minor in the state to have died from the coronavirus. In just eight days, Florida saw a 34% increase in cases among children, bringing the number of COVID-19 cases in minors to over 31,000, reports CNN. There has also been an increase in hospitalizations among children diagnosed.
Click here to donate to the GoFundMe for Kimora's funeral services.