SARS-CoV-2 infection among children and teenagers saw an increase of two percentage points in the second wave compared to the first wave in Ernakulam, according to official estimates.
Of the about 2.4 lakh tested positive in the second wave, 39,427 were children. This accounted for nearly 16% of the total infected population in the district. In the first wave, 18,307 children were infected. The total count of positive cases in the previous wave was about 1.28 lakh. Children amounted to nearly 14% of the infected in the first wave, as per data available with the Health Department.
Two children had died owing to the infection. The first death of a 16-year-old girl was reported on October 13 last year. A fifteen-year-old girl’s death was reported on June 12. Six cases of MISC (Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome in Children) were detected in the district. All the cases were reported in the second wave.
About 19,177 of the children infected in the current wave were in the age category of 5-14. In the age category of 15-19, about 13,353 were infected while the corresponding figure in the 1-4 age category was 6, 894. In the previous wave, about 8, 400 figured under the age category of 5-14 while the corresponding figure in the age group of 15-19 was 5,893.
“A feature we have noticed in the second wave is that everyone else in the family was getting infected when one member tested positive. This could be due to the Delta variant that spreads very fast. When an adult member gets infected, it was natural that children would also get infected,” said M. Narayanan, former State president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. On the MISC cases in the second wave, Dr. Narayanan pointed out that a proportionate increase in such cases was possible as there was a spike in the total number of persons getting infected. “It was found happening nearly one month after the peak of the wave,” he said.
Asked about the speculations children may be affected more in the third wave, Dr. Mathews Numpeli, District Programme Manager, National Health Mission, said that there was no scientific evidence to support such inferences. “Children were infected in both the first and the second wave. The chances of a change in pattern in which the virus attacks children more were remote,” he said.
