London - A heartbroken mother has asked the public to "stay inside that little bit longer" after her baby died in her arms from an illness linked to coronavirus.
Kathryn Rowlands, 29, said her eight-month-old son Alexander Parsons passed away last month after being diagnosed with Kawasaki disease.
He is the youngest-known British victim of the illness, which mainly affects the under-fives and causes rashes, swelling and inflamed blood vessels. Up to 100 children in the UK have been affected by a similar condition.
Alexander had no underlying health conditions and was pictured smiling two hours before suffering a ruptured aneurysm.
Alexander passed away aged eight months after being admitted to Plymouth's Derriford Hospital on April 6.
Rowlands, from Plymouth, told the Sunday Mirror: "I will never be whole again."
She now wants to raise awareness, saying: "The doctors and nurses who fought to save Alex were incredible – but if they’d known more about the Covid-Kawasaki link, they possibly could have done more."
The illness, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), was found by scientists to be caused by coronavirus last month.
The CDC previously said: "Healthcare providers who have cared or are caring for patients younger than 21 years of age meeting MIS-C criteria should report suspected cases to their local, state, or territorial health department."
The condition had previously been referred to as Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) by the state of New York in the United States where there have been more than a hundred reported cases, including at least three deaths.