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'Falling apart': Family heartbroken after Queensland toddler dies with Covid

A family is heartbroken after their daughter died in Queensland following a Covid infection, two weeks before her second birthday.

The news of the 23-month-old child dying at Queensland Children's Hospital on Sunday night was confirmed on Tuesday.

Queensland's Deputy Premier Steven Miles said on Wednesday the little girl's death was "awfully sad", as her identity was revealed.

Krystal and Steven Edwards announced in a Facebook post their daughter Ruby suddenly became unwell, and eventually tested positive for Covid-19 which triggered a rare auto-immune condition.

Ruby Edwards died due to Covid-19 complications. Source: GoFundMe
Ruby Edwards died due to Covid-19 complications. Source: GoFundMe

"She fought long and hard but unfortunately, the condition was too aggressive, ruthless and relentless," her parents wrote in the post.

"Thanks to her treatment, we don’t believe she suffered any pain during her fight and was able to leave this world peacefully."

The family said Covid-19 triggered Acute Hemorrhagic Leukoencephalitis, which attacked her brain and spinal cord.

Mr Edwards said it felt as though their world was "falling apart" following Ruby's death and added he and his wife were expecting the arrival of their son this Friday.

"This is supposed to be such a happy time where our family would become complete but is now so broken," he said.

A GoFundMe has to date raised over $17,000 for the family.

Mr Edwards also revealed on Facebook he was dealing with both Covid-19 and sleep deprivation while feeling sadness, anger, disbelief, denial and regret all at the same time.

Since the pandemic began, 14 children under the age of nine have died from the virus, according to data published by the Australian Department of Health and Aged Services on Tuesday.

It is not known if the Ruby's tragic death is included in that figure.

Mr Miles said there were about 1000 people in hospital with Covid-19 in Queensland, but there are no plans to reintroduce a mask mandate or any other health measures to suppress the outbreak.

"Now that everyone has had a chance to get vaccinated, we have a different set of responses and measures and you can see the effectiveness of that vaccination in the hospitalisation rates," he said.

Hospitalisations as a proportion of case numbers were much lower than earlier variants, he said.

"The number of those hospitalisations who are needing ICU care is lower and the number of fatal cases as a proportion of total cases is also lower."

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