GoFundMe for family of 5-year-old Ontario girl who died of COVID raises more than $21k

A GoFundMe started this week in honour of a five-year-old Ontario girl who died after contracting COVID-19 has so far raised more than $21,000 and counting for her family.

Ava-Mae Abram tested positive for the virus over the weekend and passed away in hospital on Monday, just one day later.

Started by a family friend to help Ava-Mae's mother with funeral costs, the crowdfunding campaign has taken off, with one tweet calling for donations accruing more than 1,100 retweets, 250 quote tweets and hundreds of comments in just over 12 hours' time.

Described as "the sweetest," the girl was known for her love of animals, "especially horses and puppies," the GoFundMe reads.

"She loved to dance, sing and play with Lego... she will be deeply missed by all those who knew her, especially her mom Lindsay and Nana Lise."

Naturally, given the girl's age, there has been an outpouring of support and condolences from the public.

Ava-Mae, a 5 year old girl from Ontario, has died of #Covid_19.

She loved horses, puppies, dancing, & Lego.🙏🏻😔 💔

Donations for her funeral:https://t.co/WBTZOOnDtw

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) January 6, 2022

According to the most recent data available from Public Health Ontario, so far in Ontario, only nine people aged 19 and under have died from the virus since the onset of the pandemic, making for less than 0.1 per cent of all known cases.

One of these was a 13-year-old Brampton girl, the GoFundMe for whom was also shared widely in the province and ended up raising more than $140,000. Another is a four-year-old girl who just passed in Toronto.

In total, the fatality rate for COVID-19 within Ontario sits at 1.2 per cent among the 841,371 people who are on record for having the illness as verified by a PCR test. Of these positive cases, 2.8 per cent (24,824) have been in children aged 0-4, and another 6.3 per cent (52,834) have been in those aged 5-11.

Part of the reason younger kids are generally considered more immune to the communicable disease is due to their lower gene expression of ACE2 receptors, which are enzymes that act as pathways for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 to enter cells.

But still, these statistical anomalies, when they do happen, are undeniably tragic and send shockwaves through their communities.

Courtney Scott, who started the campaign for Ava-Mae two days ago, has since disabled new donations.