The government is keeping a close watch on Covid-19 cases among children as they may be at a higher risk of infection due to changes in the virus’ behaviour and epidemiological dynamics.

Aa the weekly Health Ministry briefing, VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, said the Covid-19 virus is affecting children in two ways — one, directly, and second with post-Covid multi-system inflammatory syndrome. However, he said no unusual burden has been observed on the paediatric health infrastructure and so far majority of the cases reported have been mild, he added.

But he said that there is a need to push the preparedness and for this a national group of experts was formed. This group has presented fresh guidelines to curtail Covid in children and will be adopted in a day or two , Paul said adding, “After recovery, some children complained of inflammation, rashes, conjunctivitis, breathlessness and fever. The guidelines have been framed for these multi-inflammatory issues in children and these cases need to be treated as an emergency situation.”

Vaccination drive

“In India, Covaxin and Zydus’s DNA vaccine are being tried on children. When the scientific community is satisfied that it is safe to be given to children, we will go ahead with the vaccination of children,” said Paul.

On the issue of dosage of Covid vaccines, he said, “there is no change. The schedule is two doses of Covishield and two doses for Covaxin.” He also clarified that the issue of mixing vaccines remains unresolved from a scientific point of view. “And until it is resolved, no mixing of vaccines is permitted,” he stressed.

No shortage of jabs

Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research Balram Bhargava said that all Indians will be vaccinated by December and that there is no shortage of vaccines.

“Shortage is what you feel if you want to vaccinate the country within a month... By August, we will have up to a crore vaccines per day and we will cover the population by December,” Bhargava said. “You can identify through the CoWIN platform which State is running which vaccination drive, and all the States are apprised in advance of that. After one-two months, we will be able to provide vaccine doses multiple times,” he added.

Stating that the gradual unlocking will not lead to a Covid surge, he said “Vaccination, Covid-appropriate behaviour and support and care have to be continued till herd immunity is achieved or the 70 per cent of population is vaccinated.”

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, pointed to the steady decline in daily new cases since India reported a peak on May 7 and said there had been an almost 69 per cent decline since then.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW