News Analysis India

Tag: Covid in children

  • 139 children among Mizoram’s 639 new COVID-19 patients

    By PTI

    AIZAWL: Mizoram’s COVID-19 tally rose to 49,350 on Tuesday as 639 more people, including 139 children, tested positive for the infection, while two fresh fatalities pushed the northeastern state’s coronavirus death toll to 184, a health bulletin said.

    Aizawl district registered the highest number of new cases at 399, followed by Kolasib (97) and Mamit (32), it said, adding that the single-day positivity rate stood at 6.25 per cent.

    Three new patients have travel history, while the remaining 636 fresh infections were detected during contact tracing.

    Mizoram now has 9,510 active cases, while 39,656 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 963 on Monday.

    The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state stood at 80.35 per cent, while the death rate was at 0.37 per cent.

    The state has tested over 7.45 lakh samples for COVID-19 so far, including 10,210 in the last 24 hours.

    State Immunisation Officer Dr Lalzawmi said that over 6.46 lakh people have been vaccinated, of whom 2.21 lakh have received both doses.

  • 48% Indian parents not willing to send their kids to schools till vaccinated: Survey 

    While several states started partial reopening of schools in October last year, physical classes were again suspended following the exponential rise in the COVID-19 cases during the second wave.

  • Popular drugs used to treat coronavirus in adults not fit for kids: Govt 

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Centre on Wednesday issued detailed guidelines for treating children with Covid, emphasising that most of the drugs used for adults are not recommended for kids. Medicines like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, favipiravir, doxycycline and azithromycin prescribed to adult patients have not been tested on children, it said. 

    However, it allowed the restricted use of Remdesivir. Once vaccines are approved for children, those with co-morbidities and those having severe symptoms would be prioritised for inoculation, the guidelines said.  “Children have less severe disease than adults. In the majority, the infection is asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. It is uncommon to have moderate to severe Covid among healthy children,” it said. 

    The government called for a combined effort from the public and private sectors to increase facilities to treat children. “A combined effort from the private and public sector is needed to handle any surge (in cases) in the future after the withdrawal of the lockdown over the next three to four months. The basic principles of equity and dignity of care should be followed.”  

    It suggested designating specific areas in Covid facilities for pediatric care, adding parents should be allowed to accompany the child. “For children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome who test negative for acute Covid, care has to be provided by the existing pediatric facilities,” it said. 

    Remdesivir was earlier not recommended for children

    Earlier, the Centre had said that antiviral drug Remdesivir was not recommended for children. It had saidsteroids should be used to treat only moderately severe and critically ill patients in hospital settings. At thesame time, it recommended a six minuted walk test to assess “cardiopulmonary exercise tolerance”.

  • Reserve 10% Covid ICU beds for children during future Covid waves: Expert group

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: While stressing that there is no evidence so far that kids are at higher risk for the future Covid waves, an expert group of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force has urged the government to earmark 10% of adult Covid ICU facilities for children in cases there are surges ahead.

    The group, comprising of senior paediatricians from many cities in India, has also said that there is a need to consider vaccination for kids urgently.

    “We urge the government to earmark at least 10% of the adult Covid ICU beds for children, 20 % in covid wards, with sufficient isolation rooms so that healthy parents can stay with their children as needed,” a 19-page report by the expert group has said.

    It also recommended adding ICU and high dependency unit beds in the non-covid paediatric ward as it is anticipated that some cases of the multi-system inflammatory syndrome, a known post-Covid complication in some kids, maybe observed in future waves.

    Among the confirmed cases of Covid-19 in India, less than 12% were children and young adults under the age of 20 years and only 3-4% were children under the age of 10 years.

    In the absence of a national database on clinical presentation and outcomes of infected children during the two surges noted thus far, data of approximately 2600 hospitalized children below the age of 10 years, excluding neonates, from 10 hospitals in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Delhi-NCR region was collected and analyzed.

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    It was observed that mortality rate amongst hospitalized Covid-19 positive children below the age of 10 years was 2.4%, about 4 % of children who died had comorbidities, 9 % of all hospitalized Covid positive children presented with severe illness, under 10 years of age and the findings were similar during the two surges of Covid-19 pandemic so far.

    Based on data available, there appears to be no substantial evidence to suggest that children would be more affected or would have greater illness severity due to Covid-19 infection in the anticipated third wave, the experts noted adding that children have milder disease, better prognosis, and low mortality in comparison to adults.

    “However, infants and children with underlying illness may be at higher risk and will require greater monitoring,” said the report adding that as there is insufficient information currently to estimate risk in children due to the new SARS Cov 2 variants and the consequences in children due to increased adult vaccination rates.

    The experts said that they anticipated an increase in paediatric cases, corresponding to the expected increase in absolute numbers and the wave and the proportion of children of all confirmed cases may also be expected to increase because a substantial proportion of the adult population is expected to be completely vaccinated.

    However, only a small minority of children are expected to require critical care, they insisted.

    Yet, the experts have said that timely completion of the vaccine trials in children will substantially accelerate the efforts for ensuring protection, generate data, and guide immediate policy actions.

    “We recommend a more ‘at-risk’ approach for consideration and adoption, prioritizing adolescent age groups including children with comorbidities (immunosuppression, neuro disabilities, asthma, gastrointestinal conditions, or diabetes), obesity, and young adults who become more susceptible to worsening the disease and need for critical care,” said their report. 

  • Bombay HC asks Maharashtra to widely publicise advisory on preventing COVID-19 among children

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government on Thursday to give wide publicity to its advisory on preventing COVID-19 infection among children.

    A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said the state government must consider broadcasting the dos and don’ts on regional news channels to ensure the message reaches a larger population, especially those in rural areas.

    The directions came after Maharashtra Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed the court that the state had constituted a task force to tackle pediatric cases of COVID-19 and related ailments.

    A detailed video conference was recently held between district and health officials and 65,000 ASHA workers, during which various factors, such as identifying symptoms, prevention methods, use of oximeters, were discussed, Kumbhakoni said.

    The court noted that the presentation made by the state in the meeting and its subsequent advisory was “nicely done” and therefore, must be given wider publicity.

    “Why not broadcast this on Marathi TV and news channels? Give wide publicity to educate mothers, all stakeholders,” the high court said.

    The court was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations (PILs) on managing resources and containing the spread of COVID-19 infection in the state.

    During previous hearings, the HC said given that experts had cautioned the country to brace for the third wave of the pandemic, in which children might be the most vulnerable, the authorities must take pre-emptive steps and also strengthen health infrastructure in the state.

    The court will continue hearing the PILs on June 16.

  • No reason to believe Covid will disproportionately affect children in next wave: N K Arora

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: There is no reason to believe that children will be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in the coming weeks and months or in the next wave, the head of a government working group said, but stressed on the need for additional resource inputs to improve the paediatric Covid services.

    In an interview with PTI, Dr N K Arora, Chairman of India’s COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), said Indian data does not show specific predilection of the currently circulating virus strains either for the youth or paediatric age group.

    “However, since the absolute numbers have increased, patients from both age groups are being noticed more,” he said.

    Arora, who is Director of INCLEN Trust, said it is not possible to predict any third wave at this time.

    “But based on what the experience is available from our own country and that from other parts of the world, there is no reason to believe that children will be disproportionately affected in the coming weeks and months or in the next wave,” he said.

    But he stressed on the need to improve the paediatric Covid services and align with the rest of the COVID-19 management framework.

    “It is absolutely necessary to appreciate that newborn, children and pregnant women require specific care facilities. Children below 10 years will need either mother or father or a care provider with them. Similarly infected pregnant women can deliver prematurely. I am given to understand that treatment protocols are already prepared and are under review by different paediatric groups and associations,” he said.

    Arora said similarly the unique hospital care requirements are being worked out.

    “The country is already managing children and most Covid care centres have provision but there is need for additional resource inputs to improve the paediatric Covid services and align with the rest of the COVID-19 management framework,” he added.

    Some experts are highlighting the need for preparation warning that children could be affected by the third wave more than adults.

    AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria has also said there was no indication that children will be severely or more affected in the third wave of the pandemic.

    “If we see the data of the first and second waves, it is very similar and it shows that children are usually protected and even if they get it, they only have mild infection.

    And the virus hasn’t changed so there is no indication that children will be more affected in the third wave,” he told reporters on Monday.

    And there is this hypothesis that the virus enters through ACE receptors in the body and these receptors are relatively less in children as compared to adults.

    This is a hypothesis on why the infection has been less amongst children, he said.

    “Those who floated this theory said that children have so far been not affected so perhaps they will be most affected in the third wave but there is so far no evidence that there will be severe infection in children or there will be more cases in them in the upcoming wave,” Guleria added.

    The Indian Academy of Paediatrics recently said though children appear as susceptible as adults it is “highly unlikely that the third wave will predominantly or exclusively affect children”.

    “We need to be prepared with more in-patient beds and intensive care beds for children,” it said.

    The country’s apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has also said that the Centre and states should ramp up their preparations to protect children and neonatals.

  • Analysis shows children between 0-14 years less affected by COVID: Government

    Very rarely a severe illness, in form of multi-system inflammatory syndrome, has been identified, Vardhan said, adding this happens usually three to six weeks after the infection.