CHENNAI: The fear of their children being taken away to Covid care centres or hospitals, if they test positive, has dissuaded many parents in Chennai from taking their kids for Covid-19 testing, despite the children showing symptoms.
A sector worker who undertakes fever surveillance in Perungudi zone said that in one such instance, a family refused to let the workers check their child’s body temperature. “They had found out the previous night that the child had fever, but did not want us to check as they were scared we would take him away if he tested positive. Neither of the parents had fever,” he said on the condition of anonymity. The 12-year-old boy is said to have tested negative later.
As on Monday, 3,723 children (in the age of 0-19) of the total active cases of 35,425 were currently Covid positive -- around 10.5 per cent. At the same last year, 1,613 of total 13,889 cases (active and recovered) had tested positive.
A 37-year-old resident, on the condition of anonymity, said that his son had started running a temperature two days ago. “We had a tele-consultation with doctors available at Corporation helpline and were advised to get him (the child) tested for Covid, if the fever persisted for one more day. But, we are planning to just monitor him for now, because in children, the fever is usually mild and goes away soon. So we don’t want to get him tested and stress him out. He is already frightened that he will be admitted (to a hospital).”
Senior Corporation officials told Express that there was no need to panic since the standard protocol was to recommend home isolation when it comes to children. “For children, our regular procedure is to allow home isolation, and since they come under below-45 age category, they will be triaged right at home and need not come in person even to the screening centres,” said an official.