SUFFOLK, Va. — Ten-year-old Teresa Sperry was learning to roller skate, enjoying her first days back at school in the fifth grade, and never had more than a simple cold throughout her life.
That’s how Teresa’s parents, now in protective quarantine, described their daughter – days after she became one of two Virginia children to die from COVID-19 this week.
Health officials and family members confirmed both children were under 11 years old, still too young to receive the vaccine. Pediatric deaths in Virginia and nationwide are exceedingly rare, yet the American Academy of Pediatrics warns juveniles comprise more than 1 in 4 U.S. weekly COVID-19 cases.