Children in Kolkata wearing protective face-shields amid concerns over spread of coronavirus.
New Delhi:
The second wave of Covid, is in which the numbers are skyrocketing, is hitting younger people and children – unlike the first round when the elderly, and those with co-morbidities were seen to the most vulnerable sections. Data from the Union health ministry shows 79,688 children have been infected in the five states affected worst by the virus.
Currently there is no vaccine for children. A testing of AstraZeneca vaccine of children in the UK has been suspended over reports of the vaccine being linked to blood clotting, which has led to seven deaths in the European nation.
In Maharashtra, 60,684 children have been infected with Covid between 1 March and 4 April. Of these children, 9,882 are under the age of five years.
In Chhattisgarh, 5,940 children have been infected by the disease – 922 of them are below the age of five. In Karnataka, the corresponding figures are 7,327 and 871. In Uttar Pradesh, 3,004 children have been infected and 471 among them are below the age of five.
A doctor in Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia hospital has said the national capital is seeing a similar situation. Health ministry figures show Delhi logged 2,733 infections among children, 441 of them below the age of five years.
Public health experts are of the view that the weaker immunity in children, coupled with a lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour, could be the reason for the spike. There is also the fact that new virus mutants are highly transmissible, and are turning into super-spreaders.
Over the last 24 hours, India recorded an all-time high of 1,15,736 fresh cases and 630 fatalities. This was the second time within three days that the country logged more than 1 lakh cases over a 24-hour period.