BENGALURU: Despite a section of the scientific community fearing a rise in paediatric Covid-19 cases during the predicted third wave, numbers from the Karnataka Covid-19 war room show otherwise. Data over five months (July 20 to November 20) this year, reveals that month-wise new paediatric patients, aged 0 to 9, are declining. From July 20 to August 20, 2,231 new patients were reported. This went down to 1,311 between August 21 and September 20. In comparison, only 630 cases were reported between September 21 and October 20, which further decreased to 315 cases until November 20.
Covid-19 cases in the paediatric population are directly proportionate to those in adults. Therefore, new cases among kids have reduced, said Dr Srikanta JT, Consultant-Paediatric Interventional Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Aster CMI Hospital, and member of the state Covid-19 committee set up to tackle the third wave.
“To start with, we did not observe a significant number of cases in this population. Whatever cases were reported, were usually caused by the infection spreading from an adult family member. We might see some spikes here and there, but are reasonably well-protected,” Dr Srikanta observed, adding that the idea of a third wave and the paediatric population getting infected, was far-fetched.
He said that children fared well in the first two waves, with not much mortality and morbidity, and opined that reopening schools was the best idea. He also pointed out that studies in Western Europe have shown that children do not cause transmission, and are not harbingers of the virus.
In the same timeline as above, new monthly cases reported in the 10 to 19 age group have also been reducing -- from 5,107 to 4,040, down to 2,520 and finally at 1,184. Covid-19, at the moment, is not an issue across India, said Dr Basavaraj GV, from Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, and a member of the third wave committee.“The severity of the disease has gone down, and people have developed immunity against the present strain. We don’t know which strain may emerge later, but for now, Covid-19 is not a problem among children and adults,” Dr Basavaraj said.
However, he mentioned that children have not been exposed to other diseases in two years, and hence, did not develop natural immunity to them. This is a cause for concern, he said, as hospitals are reporting cases of Respiratory Syncytial virus, Influenza and Pan Influenza, Metapneumovirus, Bocavirus, etc.
Paediatric Covid-19 cases in Karnataka this year
