Newborn contracts COVID-19 days after she's born

Newborn recovers from COVID-19 A newborn baby is recovering from COVID-19. Brenna Rose reports.

Calgary — A newborn baby is among the thousands of Albertans who have recovered from COVID-19.

Nora Forrest was days old when she was hospitalized with coronavirus at a time when her mom, dad, 20-month-old big sister Hazel and grandma also became infected.

Nora was born on Nov.22. Her mom, Ceyda Alaf Forrest delivered her healthy at 8 a.m. and was home by 10 the same day.

However, that night, Ceyda said things changed.

“I woke up in the middle of the night to nurse her and it was like a train hit me,” she said.

It wasn’t long before the entire family, including Nora, were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.

“She had a fever,” said Ceyda. “Go to the emergency.”

It got worse. At one point, Nora stopped breathing altogether, said her dad Ben.

“They put a breathing tube in,” he said. “That was tough to watch, such a small baby getting that procedure, putting a tube in and we weren’t sure that we were going to bring her home.”

After tests were conducted, it was determined that the entire family had COVID-19.

Nora was intubated, and stayed in hospital for 13 days, while the rest of the family isolated at home and got over it after 10 days.

The family isn’t sure how they became infected with COVID-19, but say their experience is a reminder that COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate.

“The public health measures, masks, testing if you have symptoms...it’s in place to protect yourself and others,” Forrest said.

According to the province, 427 children under the age of one have had confirmed cases of COVID-19, while 2375 between one and four have had it.

No one under the age of 19 has died from the virus.