The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has projected that India will see the highest number of births in the nine-month period after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
UNICEF has said that about 116 million babies will be born under the shadow of COVID-19 pandemic — up to 40 weeks after Covid-19 was recognised as a pandemic on March 11.
Out of that, India is expected to account for 20.1 million babies — the maximum number of births in any country during the nine-month period – who will be born between March 11 and December 16 this year.
As per UNICEF’s projection, the other countries which will see high number of births during this period are China (13.5 million), Nigeria (6.4 million), Pakistan (5 million), Indonesia (4 million) and the US (3,3 million). it said. “Most of these countries had high neonatal mortality rates even before the pandemic and may see these levels increase with COVID-19 conditions,” UNICEF said.
The top UN body warned that new mothers and newborns will be greeted by c.
“Millions of mothers all over the world embarked on a journey of parenthood in the world as it was. They now must prepare to bring a life into the world as it has become — a world where expecting mothers are afraid to go to health centres for fear of getting infected, or missing out on emergency care due to strained health services and lockdowns,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.
