Children no more in safe zone
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 18, 2021 -

NEARLY two years after outbreak of the novel coronavirus, researchers and virologists continue to examine socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and determine the age groups most vulnerable to contract the virus or fall prey to the viral infection with majority of the findings pointing to youngsters as relatively safer than the adults.

Few researchers, however, have been cautioning that children and adolescents may be highly exposed to bio-psychosocial stressors generated by the pandemic and once the population’s containment measures to reduce virus spread are intensified, they could be potentially affected by the disruption in daily life routine as a result of total social isolation and their unseasoned ability to conceive and comprehend the short and long-term consequences of this outbreak.

With or without reference to these literatures and findings, one could easily comprehend by now that the older individuals are more susceptible to develop Covid-19, and those with major comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity can be more affected and could potentially be at higher risk for severe illness and death.

Although children were believed to have lower risk of developing the severe form of the disease as well as less hospital care and mechanical ventilation, a total of nearly 15,000 children in the state officially confirmed to have contracted the disease signify how devastating the contagion has been to all sections of the society.

As per the account of health director Dr K Rajo, the pandemic has infected 2661 children under 15 years of age during the first wave and 12,322 during the second wave.

Compared to the government of Mizoram making it a point to update daily on the number of children infected, Dr Rajo’s revelation regarding the status of children of Manipur vis-a-vis Covid-19 on Monday is probably the first such children specific information placed in the public domain.

Though Union health ministry officials and authorities of reputed hospitals, including AllMS, have been periodically sharing information related to vulnerability of children in case the pandemic continues and the virus mutates, the state’s health department keeping under wrap such vital data gives enough reason to suspect lack of transparency or efficiency in tackling the pandemic.

For instance, government bulletins issued everyday provide statistical data which give weightage to quantity of medical oxygen supplied to the healthcare and Covid centres, number of recovered patients, doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered, etc, but the number of infected children never finds official mention unless fatalities among kids trigger public outrage over alleged apathetic attitude by the hospital personnel.

Thus, if at all the health department is serious about shielding the youngsters from the contagion then there is no valid reason why the public should be deprived of the information on gravity of the situation, especially to the children who are unvaccinated.

In case the department stili believes that public complacency is the root cause for spread of the pandemic, then it should change the strategy from simply appealing to follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour to instilling fear among the parents so that they could realise how vulnerable their children are and subsequently take utmost precautionary measures to safeguard their progeny from the potential threat.