August 23, 2021: The Union Home Ministry has pressed the alarm button with regard to  COVID infection among children. The report filed by the committee of experts set up under the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) of the ministry has said that children could be affected as severely as adults during the third wave that is expected to peak around October.

In its report submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the committee has raised red flags regarding availability of paediatric care and has highlighted the need for paediatric facilities, including doctors, staff, and equipment like ventilators and ambulances, if a large number of children got infected by the virus. What is alarming is the fact that the report has said that the available infrastructure is “not anywhere close” to the requirement if the need arose.

The experts have also written about prioritising a vaccination drive against the virus for children with co-morbidities and those with special needs.

It is on August 21 that the country’s drug regulators approved Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D vaccine for children above 12 years of age. The role out of the three-dose vaccine is likely to take place in mid-September. Dr Sharvil Patel, the managing director of Zydus Cadila said that the company would produce one crore doses of the vaccine by October.

He had also said that they will soon apply for approval from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct trials of ZyCoV-D on children above 2 years.

The experts’ study titled ‘Third Wave Preparedness: Children Vulnerability and Recovery’ has said that children may not be severely infected by the virus, but they may pass it on to others, something that has been highlighted by several other studies.

The report has called for “a holistic home care model, immediate increase in paediatric medical capacities and prioritising mental health issues among children” and setting up of Covid wards where parents or guardians could stay with the children during the treatment.

Stating that children are not a homogeneous group, the report said that the policies cannot be the same for different groups of children. The report has highlighted the need for protection programmes for children from rural areas and disadvantaged communities.

 With schools reopening, the report has suggested micro-management at the district level as proposed by the World Health Organisation to ensure safety at educational institutes.

Government think-tank NITI Aayog has earlier suggested that preparations be made for 23 hospitalisations for every 100 positive cases in a future pandemic surge.