The share of children among Covid-19 patients in Tamil Nadu has been steadily increasing, data over the past few months show, raising concerns among health experts at a time when India is bracing for a possible third wave. However, there has been no increase in hospitalisation, doctors and experts say.
According to the Tamil Nadu health department, there was only 6% of the total 20,326 Covid-19 cases 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% cases reported in June, 9.5% in July and 10% in August.
Dr Srinivasan, state nodal officer for Neonatal Intensive Care and a member of state’s task force for paediatric Covid-19 management, said, “The government of India’s projection for the third wave says 12% of the cases could be of children but only 5% 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, Srinivasan mentioned that there has been a slight increase in the number of children above the age of 10 years getting hospitalised. “Children under 10 years of age are administered with vaccines for various diseases, which boost their immunity. However, there are no vaccines for children above 10 years and their immunity levels must be lower than those under 10 years. But we do not have any scientific data yet. We see at least one child above 10 years of age coming to the hospital every day in the last one week.”
Tamil Nadu has reported 24 child deaths in the last eight months. There were zero deaths in January, February, March and August. However, the toll was 13 in June, eight in May, two in July and one in April. The highest mortality rate of children this year was 0.16% reported in June.
Another member of the state paediatric management task force, Dr Therani Rajan, who is a paediatrician and dean at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, which handled the most Covid-19 cases, said most fatalities occur among children with co-morbidities such as cancer or those who are treated with steroids and have their immune compromised.
Rajan said, “In most cases, the Covid-19 virus in itself does not cause severe disease in children. Even newborn children without co-morbidities who were affected with Covid-19 overcome the disease without any complications. In children with co-morbid conditions, the virus may aggravate the already existing diseases and worsen the condition of the child. When Covid-19 vaccine for children gets rolled out, they will be more protected.”
Around 15,000 doctors and 30,000 nurses in the state have been trained to treat children with Covid-19. There are 1,100 paediatrics in government institutes and 2,300 in private institutes across the state.
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