COVID: 11-month baby infected after adults took turns cuddling him

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: An 11-month-old boy ended up COVID-positive after adults at a flat, two of whom were unknowingly infected with the coronavirus, took turns cuddling him.

The baby was brought by his parents along as they visited friends at a shared accommodation in Karama. The parents, too, including two other occupants of the flat, eventually tested positive.

Eufracio Romero, Jr., father of the infant, Burj Hannter, said their baby, was once a regular at the flat, a three-bedroom unit with a common kitchen and bathrooms shared by nine people including their child’s babysitter.

“Si Burj kasi ay malapit sa kanilang lahat kaya love na love nila si baby,” said Romero.

“Sa kanila na kasi lumaki si Burj, kaya sumigla ang bahay nang dumating siya sa kanila. Minsan nga ayaw pa ibigay sa amin kung susunduin na namin. Kaya happy din kami, kasi alam naming mag-asawa na mahal nila ang baby namin,” said Romero, a formwork engineer. His wife, Zeny, works as office administrative officer at a real estate company.

“Worried po talaga kami para sa baby, lalo na’t 11-months old lang siya. Hindi namin alam kung may nararamdaman siyang kakaiba or may masakit ba sa kanya,” said Romero, recalling the days when he and his wife started experiencing symptoms following the series of visits to the flat.

“Kahit pareho kaming may mga sintomas, si baby pa rin nasa isip namin,” he said.

The couple took a swab test after being asked by a close friend, Jolly Milette Santo Zulueta, who also stays in the same shared accommodation they were visiting at, to do it after she herself, and another flat mate, tested positive.

Zulueta, 43, a flower shop operations manager traced her coronavirus infection to two of their flat mates staying in one of the rooms. Zulueta lives with her husband, Richard, a communications director at a skills training company.

The two flat mates, who were among those playing with baby Burj during the Romeros’ visits, tested positive after they started reporting back for work  in the last week of April. They have not undergone tests at the time of the Romeros’ visitations, and were among those who cuddled and passed baby Burj around, according to Jolly Milette.

“We had one major concern,” Jolly Milette said. “During those days (in April and May) our friends (the Romeros) frequently visited us with their baby (Burj Hannter). We called them up and convinced them to do swab test as well, and on May 20, they got their results na lahat sila positive,” she said.

“Naging bola kasi namin lahat si baby; pasa pasa then lahat kami kumakarga,” she said.

In all, four of the flat’s nine occupants got the COVID: the first two, who were living together in one of the rooms, and were admitted to the hospital on May 12 and May 15 respectively; Jolly Milette; and another flat mate.

The remaining five occupants, including Jolly Milette’s husband and the babysitter, tested negative.

The first two positive cases were discharged on May 26 and May 28.

Jolly Milette and the Romeros were taken by a medical team from the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) to an isolation center in a hotel near the Al Maktoum airport on May 23.

The Romeros were discharged on May 31; Jolly Milette, on June 2.

“Mas kinakabahan kami para sa baby nung nandito pa kami sa bahay,” said Romero. They were staying a floor below Zuluetas in the same building in Karama.

“Pero nang nakuha na kami at nadala na kami sa isolation, nakita naman namin kung paano ang care sa amin ng mga nurses at doctors duon,  kaya naging panatag ang loob namin,” he said.

The Romeros were from Sibuyan, Romblon.

In Dubai, most married overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) leave their infants to friends doubling as babysitters during the day to save on cost incurred should they leave them at care centers instead.