Odisha Health Official Spells The ‘Mantra’ To Protect Children Against COVID

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has been giving data on children testing positive for COVID for the last two days. While 138 among 1058 new cases detected on Sunday were those in the age group of 0-18 years, the number dropped to 104 with 868 people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

While the figures have raised concern ahead of a possible third wave, Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty told the media on Monday that around 12 per cent of those infected are children and this is an all-India trend. “The rate of infection is likely to rise in the coming days and the 9-18 age group will be more prone to it,” he said.

Quoting a study by the World Health Organisation and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Mohanty, however, added that the proportion of kids affected is almost the same in the second as in the first wave. “Infected children often go undetected as they are mostly asymptomatic. The severity and death rate among them is low,” he added.

The fourth-round serosurvey of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in three southern Odisha districts revealed that 50-60 per cent of the children had developed antibodies.

According to senior doctors, the number of children affected by COVID-19 in the second wave was more as the overall number of coronavirus cases increased and the level of seroprevalence may protect them against a ‘third wave’.

The DMET chief further said that the children can be protected if the adults around them are fully vaccinated.

“Since children are at the risk of contracting the virus from adults, the same can be prevented by vaccinating the adults and teachers and by following the COVID appropriate behaviour,” he said.

On Sunday, Director, Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra assured that there was no need to press the panic button.

“We cannot conclude that the infection rate in kids has increased by considering the number of cases in a single day. It can only be ascertained after studying data of past few days,” he said.

Mohapatra said health centres across Odisha have been instructed to undertake tests of all the symptomatic children.