'She was amazing': Galveston County reports first COVID-19-related death of child

A Bacliff mom doesn’t want to see any other parents have to suffer through the same COVID-19 ordeal she has.

Karra Harwood is struggling mightily with the loss of her four-year-old daughter, Kali Cook.

“She was amazing,” Harwood told Click2Houston.com. “She was beautiful, but not the kind that wanted bows in her hair. She’d rather be in the backyard catching frogs.”

Young Kali died in her sleep soon after testing positive for the virus, making her Galveston's youngest pandemic-related fatality. Now, Harwood is left to deal with the added worry of having tested positive for the virus herself, alone with her other young children, including her five-month old.

And then, there are the whispers.

“I did not murder my daughter,” Harwood said. “There are people getting vaccinated that are still getting COVID and they can still spread COVID.”

The Galveston County Local Health Authority is on record in asserting that child deaths from COVID are not surprising given the rapid spread of the delta variant.

“Now we’re seeing our largest group of people with COVID is children under 10,” said Dr. Philip Keiser, Galveston County Local Health Authority. “So the fact that we’re getting more and more children under 10 getting COVID, it shouldn’t be surprising that some of them are getting sick. Some of them are getting in the hospital and some dying.”

Meanwhile, Harwood vows to do everything it takes to keep her daughter’s memory alive. As for Kali, Harwood said she is determined to keep her memory alive. Harwood added that she wishes she would have taken COVID-19 more seriously and that her family is not vaccinated.

While Kali’s death is the first COVID-related death of someone that young in Galveston County, just weeks ago the City of Houston reported its first pediatric COVID-death with no underlying health conditions. The male victim was reported to be between the ages of 10 to 19 and was not vaccinated. He died in July at a local hospital and city officials said it is not known if he was infected with a COVID variant.