HYDERABAD: When 10-year-old T Shashank began showing early COVID-19 symptoms, his mother, who believed that the virus woudn't affect children, didn't think much of it. Only after other family members started showing symptoms did she get the boy tested, and whose positive result left her bewildered.
This is not an isolated incident. On Tuesday, of the total 6,361 cases reported in Telangana, 2.7 per cent belonged to 1-10 age group, and 10.5 per cent to the 10-20 age group. Unlike the first COVID wave, this year the infection rate among children is very high.
"At least 5 per cent of the total cases reported this year are children, especially those who belong to the 1-12 age group. Last year, there were almost no cases where children were getting infected by COVID," said IMA Telangana vice-president Dr Sanjeev Singh Yadav.
Dr IVN Kiranmaye, COVID specialist paediatrician from Yashoda Hospital, said that one of the major reasons for the high infection rate among children is the triple variant of the virus. Another reason, she said, could be that in the last few months, schools had reopened, greatly exposing the children to the virus. "Most of the children who come to the hospital with cold and fever are testing positive," she said.
"We have had multiple cases where children had loss of breath and severe lung infection - almost all the symptoms that are being found in adult patients. There have been cases where babies as young as 23 weeks who tested positive for COVID are experiencing active symptoms," she added.
However, the mortality rate among children is still very low.