Coronavirus: Thirteen-year-old boy with no underlying health conditions becomes youngest in UK to die of Covid-19

Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab – who had no apparent underlying health conditions – has become the youngest person in the UK to die from Covid-19.

The schoolboy from Brixton, south London, died in hospital in the early hours of Monday, March 30, his family has said.

He had tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, March 27 - a day after he was admitted to King's College Hospital.

Family friend Mark Stephenson said the boy's mother and six siblings are now awaiting the results of a postmortem.

A spokesman for King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "Sadly, a 13-year old boy who tested positive for Covid-19 has passed away, and our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this time.

"The death has been referred to the coroner and no further comment will be made."

Following the release of the latest official figures, a 19-year-old was believed to be England's youngest victim to have died in hospital with no existing medical issues.

Ismail's family said they were "beyond devastated" by his death, in a statement released through Mr Stephenson.

"Ismail started showing symptoms and had difficulties breathing and was admitted to King's College Hospital," the family said.

"He was put on a ventilator and then put into an induced coma but sadly died yesterday morning. To our knowledge he had no underlying health conditions. We are beyond devastated."

Ismail was not able to have his family by his side as he passed away due to the risk of spreading the virus.

Mr Stephenson, college director at the Madinah College where Ismail's sister works, has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral costs.

The page says: "Sadly he died without any family members close by due to the highly infectious nature of Covid-19."

As of Tuesday, March 31 there are now 25,150 confirmed cases of the virus across the UK and 1,789 people have died.

There are currently 833 confirmed cases in the North East.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

How to subscribe to the print edition

It’s easy to subscribe to your local newspaper. We have arranged a special 20 per cent off subscription offer for people to take advantage of. Visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk, choose the newspaper title, the type of subscription and enter your details.