Tamil Nadu sees rise in Covid-19 cases among children: Report

As per data of the last few months, Tamil Nadu has reported an increase in the number of children who have contracted Covid-19. This comes at a time when India is facing the possibility of a third-wave of the pandemic.

According to the Tamil Nadu health department, only 6 per cent of the total 20,326 Covid-19 cases were among children in January. Nearly 71,555 children were affected in the second wave in May. Although the absolute number of cases has fallen, the percentage has risen, with 8.8 per cent cases reported in June, 9.5 per cent in July and 10 per cent in August, News18 reported.

Speaking to the publication, Dr Srinivasan, state nodal officer for Neonatal Intensive Care said, “The government of India’s projection for the third wave says 12 per cent of the cases could be of children but only 5 per cent of those affected will need hospitalisation. And not all hospitalised children are going to be critical. Institute of Child Health in Chennai has not seen an increase in the number of children being hospitalised. There are only four to eight kids admitted. And this number has not increased. The increase in cases may be due to increase in asymptomatic or very mild cases who do need treatment at a hospital.”

However, he added, that there has been an increase in the number of kids over the age of 10 that are being hospitalised. He said that children below the age of 10 are vaccinated for various diseases unlike those over 10 years, and hence the latter group is likely to have lower immunity. But he also added that there was no scientific evidence to back up this claim. "We see at least one child above 10 years of age coming to the hospital every day in the last one week,” he said.

Another member of the state paediatric management task force, Dr Therani Rajan, told the publication that deaths in children occur onluy if they have comoribities such as cancer or have been treated with steroids, and hence have a compromised immune system.

In the last eight months, Tamil Nadu has reported 24 deaths among children who contracted Covid-19.

There are 1,100 paediatrics in government institutes and 2,300 in private institutes across the state, and a lot of people have been trained in paediatric Covid care.