Bhubaneswar: Covid appropriate behaviour by others is the key to prevent the infection from spreading to children and thus reduce the trepidation, stated Director of Medical Education & Training Dr CBK Mohanty.
“The first and foremost thing is to keep our children in a protected environment. The opportunity to protect them through vaccination has not arrived yet,” the DMET said. Dr Mohanty said that in these circumstances we have to think of ways to prevent the infection from spreading to them.
“So we have to protect teachers and staff of the school by vaccinating them. So naturally, they won’t be infected and so also the children. We will sensitize parents so that they also take care of their children at home. So, therefore if others follow Covid appropriate behaviour, the chances of exposure of children to the virus are lessened. Hence the fear is reduced,” said Dr Mohanty responding to queries from reporters on how to protect children from the possible Covid third wave.
Referring to a bulletin of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) issued on July 21, the DMET said that nearly 12% of the Covid infected in the country were children and a study by AIIMS & WHO in the month of June had stated that the trend has been the same in the first and second wave and added that in Odisha it is around that and trend is continuing.
“Many of the infected children go undetected because many of them are asymptomatic and severity of the disease is less in them and the mortality rate is low in them. If we observe the sero survey the rate between adults and children is almost the same which shows that they too are exposed in a similar manner but the disease has not manifested in them in the manner it has manifested in the case of adults,” informed Dr Mohanty.
Since a majority of the adults are vaccinated or have been infected and have developed antibodies to the disease so therefore it is the younger age group that is left and is likely to be proportionately infected if there is a third wave, but, however, it is difficult to tell the numbers, he added.
The State government which since yesterday has started sharing the number of children and adolescents (0-18 years) infected with Covid in its daily update on the disease has caused concern and apprehension among the populace over the possible third wave hitting the State.
While among the new Covid positive cases detected in the State on August 14, 138 were in the (0-18 year age group) on August 15 it has been recorded at 104.