Vaccination of kids in the age group of 10-18 years should be in focus: Dr Srinivasan

Various states have reported a gradual rise in the number of COVID-19 cases among children. Even if children below the age of ten are infected with COVID-19, they do not have severe conditions as they have been administered with other vaccines. Data from the Empowered Group-I (EG- I) showed that there has been a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among children, from 2.80 percent in March to 7.04 percent in August.

With the kids accounting for 16.48 percent of the total COVID-19 cases in Mizoram, it has the highest number of COVID-19 cases among kids in India. Delhi, with 2.25 percent of the total COVID-19 cases being the rate of the infection among kids has recorded the lowest number of COVID-19 cases among children in India.

In this podcast, Dr S Srinivasan, State nodal officer of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and a member of the State Task Force for COVID-19, Tamil Nadu, talks to The Federal on COVID-19 cases among children in Tamil Nadu.

Unlike other states, Tamil Nadu has not reported a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases among children. He states that the vaccination of the children in the age group of 10-18 should be in focus. According to him, vaccinating the parents and teachers would curtail the spread of the virus among the children. “However, it is imperative to extend the vaccination drive to the population below 18, before the situation worsens,” he says.