Baby Tests Positive For Coronavirus Just 30 Hours After Birth

The coronavirus has infected at least 24,000 people worldwide, and officials in China now say the youngest person with the illness is a newborn baby who was infected just 30 hours after being born. 

The state-run news site XinhuaNet says the infant was born on February 2 at a hospital in Wuhan, China — the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated. The baby's mother also tested positive for the virus before she gave birth, according to Union Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

The baby weighed just over 7 pounds at birth and is now in stable condition and under medical observation, XinhuaNet reports. 

The site said that according to medical experts, it may be a case of mother-to-child transmission. Reuters reports state broadcaster CCTV is now warning that pregnant women with the coronavirus may be able to pass it along to their unborn children. 

According to CCTV, the infected newborn has no fever or cough but did experience shortness of breath. X-rays of the baby's chest showed signs of infection and there were some abnormalities in liver function.

The deadly new coronavirus continued to spread this week, with more than 24,000 cases and at least 492 deaths confirmed worldwide. The vast majority of the infections, and all but two of the deaths, were in mainland China.

There were 11 cases confirmed in the U.S. as of Tuesday, including six in California, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, two in Illinois and one in Massachusetts. More than 80 other Americans were being tested for the virus.