Steering clear of a future shock

Almost a year and a half after the pandemic began, a diplomatic slugfest involving India and Singapore has thrown into focus, the vulnerability of children in contracting the coronavirus. On Tuesday, sparks flew after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that a new strain had been found in Singapore, which was dangerous for children, and it might entail the start of the third wave in India. Kejriwal’s comments came in the backdrop of the Singaporean Health Minister warning that children were susceptible to the new COVID-19 variant found in India, the B.1.617.2 strain. The Singaporean government did not take lightly to Kejriwal’s tweet and was quick to rebut his comments, which caused the Centre a degree of embarrassment. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Kejriwal does not represent India, and that irresponsible comments should in no way damage the ties shared by the two nations. Amidst these developments, Singapore announced schools and colleges will be shut from Wednesday onward, considering the rise in COVID-19 cases linked to the variant first detected in India. While it has denied the existence of any Singaporean variant, the furore is compelling India to consider the impact of the second wave on children. As of April, over 79,688 children had been infected in the five states hit hardest by the pandemic. In the last ten days alone, over 1,000 children had been infected in Uttarakhand, with some of them requiring hospitalisation. Doctors in Mumbai and Delhi had said last month that they did not recall a single instance from the first wave of the pandemic when children needed hospitalisation. That scenario has taken a turn during the second wave, when the virus was impacting children severely, with symptoms like prolonged fever and gastroenteritis coming to the fore. A silver lining seems to be that 60-70 per cent of the cases among children involve asymptomatic cases or those with mild cases of COVID-19. This issue is not endemic to India. In the UK, as many as 5 lakh children have tested positive for COVID since the beginning of the pandemic. Another nation that bore the majority of the brunt concerning COVID casualties also reported alarming statistics of children contracting the virus. A few days ago, it was reported by Brazil’s Health Ministry that the nation had witnessed the deaths of around 832 children under the age of five since the start of the pandemic. However, as per top epidemiologists, a study that tallied the death toll among children, based on suspected and confirmed cases, estimated that over 2,200 children in the nation under the age of five have succumbed to COVID-19, which includes over 1,600 babies under the age of one. Earlier this month, the American Academy of Paediatrics had said that a year ago, COVID cases among children made up 3% of the total caseload in the US. This year, that percentage has spiked to 22.4%, one-fifth of all cases. As of May 13, two weeks later, the figure was updated and more than 3.9 mn cases had been reported among children, which represented 14% of all cases in the US. Last week, the country vaccinated as many as 6 lakh children between 12-15 with the Pfizer shot, which has shown a 100 per cent efficacy in preliminary results of phase 3 trials in this age group. In India, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been granted permission for Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials in children. But it might be a while before children here will be anywhere in the vicinity of being vaccinated. The reason is that vaccination for all adults itself will begin picking up steam only close to July when the supplies are expected to be steadied. India does not have the bandwidth for further bifurcation of COVID doses. So until then, the way to keep children safe is by getting the parents vaccinated first and foremost, and ensuring children adhere to COVID norms.