A 1-year-old Cobb County boy has died from COVID-19, becoming the youngest person in Georgia to die of the disease.

The Georgia Department of Public Health data said the boy had an existing health condition, a situation that can contribute to the severity of the illness.

The boy was also described as African-American, but no further personal or medical information was immediately available late Friday afternoon.

Previously, a 7-year-old boy in Chatham County had been the youngest Georgian to die from COVID.

It’s rare for a child to die of the disease. Kids are also less likely to develop severe symptoms when they get it. But child cases can increase the spread of the infection among the population at large.

More than 4,000 Georgia children 4 years old and younger have been infected by COVID-19, and 120 of them have been hospitalized, according to state data.

African-Americans as a whole have suffered disproportionately from the virus in the United States.

Georgia’s rate of COVID-19 cases among children continues to be greater than the national average, according to an updated report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

The state’s rate of infections per 100,000 children is 822, versus the national average of 583. Georgia has had more than 20,000 child COVID infections, according to the report, which uses data through Aug. 20.

Still, the percentage of kids’ cases among all Georgia COVID-19 infections is at 8.4 percent, below the national mark of 9.3 percent.