‘Children not immune to Covid, but impact minimal’
Ministry asserts Covid-19 situation is stabilising in country as daily cases, active cases positivity rate have recorded a dip
NEW DELHI: Amid concerns over a probable third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the Centre on Saturday said children are not immune from the infection, but the impact is minimal even as it asserted that the Covid-19 situation is stabilising in the country with positivity rate, daily cases and active cases reducing.
“If children get affected by Covid, either there will be no symptoms or there will be minimal symptoms. They do not require hospitalisation generally,” Niti Aayog (health) member VK Paul said on Saturday, during the press briefing of the Union health ministry.
As the ongoing second wave of the pandemic is gradually coming under control with a steady fall in the number of daily positive cases and in the positivity rate, concerns over a third wave have been expressed by experts, state governments. It has also been apprehended that this possible third wave may impact children.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent meeting with state and district officials, has asked them to collect data on the infection transmission and severity among youth and children.
Explaining three points about Covid-19 infection among children, Dr Paul said that children are not immune from this infection and they can infect others but children do not generally suffer from severe infection. Health infrastructure should be ramped up to treat Covid-19 among children, but it is most important to not let them become a part of the transmission chain in the first place, Dr Paul said.
“Some facts are clear in front of us. Children can be infected and they can be infected to quite an extent. It can’t be said with certainty that the infection among children is comparatively less. For example, the December-January sero-survey revealed that the seropositivity rate among children and older is almost the same,” Dr Paul said.
Children account for about 3-4 per cent of hospital admission, in both India and the rest of the world, he said adding special attention should be on those between the age of 10 and 12 years as they are very mobile.
Paul further pointed out an overall decline in case burden but the positivity rate is still over 10 per cent in 382 districts.
Eight states have more than 1 lakh active cases while 18 states have over 15 per cent positivity rate, joint secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said during the briefing.
On vaccine wastage, the ministry said Covishield wastage has reduced from 8 per cent on March 1 to 1 per cent now, while Covaxin wastage decreased from 17 per cent to 4 per cent in the same period.
Paul also said that children can spread the coronavirus but they almost always have mild infection and mortality is very very low in them.
On the vaccine passport issue, Agarwal said there has been no consensus yet on the matter at the World Health Organisation level, but discussions are going on.
Amid rising cases of mucormycosis or ‘black fungus’, Agarwal also addressed concerns regarding the availability of Amphotericin-B, the key drug to treat the deadly disease is now being increased and the ministry is in touch with five additional manufacturers.
“Amphotericin B was available in the country in limited supply. Its availability and supply is now being increased. Ministry of Pharma is coordinating with Ministry of Health for providing license to five additional manufacturers,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.
Talking about the existing manufacturing capacity Agarwal said, “The existing manufacturers are working towards increasing their capacity and production capacity.”
Mucormycosis is a rare fungal disease commonly being detected in the Covid-19 patients who are in the recovery phase. Doctors are linking the sudden surge in Mucormycosis cases to the use of steroids to treat Covid-19 patients.
The daily rise in coronavirus cases in India remained below the 300,000-mark for the sixth consecutive day, with 2.57 lakh new cases recorded in a single day, health ministry data showed.
With the fresh cases, India’s tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,62,89,290. The death toll due to the disease rose to 2,95,525 with 4,194 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The active cases further reduced to 29,23,400 comprising 11.12 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate improved to 87.76 per cent.