Child found next to body of mother who died of coronavirus 12 hours earlier

Child was with the body for 12 to 16 hours

A child was found alone with its mother’s body in a Georgia home after the mother died from the coronavirus, health officials in the state said.

Health officials estimated the 42-year-old woman had likely been dead between 12 and 16 hours before being discovered.

Her child, who is 4 or 5 years old, was in the house with her at the time of her death. It is unclear if the child has the virus.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she was discovered by authorities conducting a welfare check at the residence.

The woman was a mammogram technician at Piedmont Newnan Hospital, though it was not immediately clear how she became infected.

However, Coweta County Coroner Richard Hawk did confirm that she had been infected by the coronavirus.

Thus far, Georgia has reported more than 1,000 cases of coronavirus, with 38 cases resulting in death.

As authorities struggle to keep up with complications stemming from the virus, vulnerable and marginalized people have - in some cases - fallen by the wayside.

Recently in Spain, army troops responding to the virus have found nursing home residents living in filthy conditions and among the bodies of peers that presumably died from the virus.

ABC News reported that the residents were “completely left to fend for themselves, or even dead, in their beds.”

A worker at a nursing home in Spain said that in some instances bodies were left in beds for more than a day while awaiting pickup by overworked funeral workers.