Some parents have been taking their children below 10 years of age to shops and other public places despite a government directive that kids in that age group should remain indoors in all zones.
An order issued by the Home Ministry after the lockdown was extended for two weeks beyond May 4 had said that persons above 65 years of age, those with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 should stay at home in all zones, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes.
An assessment of the compliance of the directive here revealed that a few parents were taking children even below three years of age to public places. A grandfather was seen holding a two-and-a-half-year old child at a supermarket at Edappally, while an eight-year-old girl was found walking into a grocery store in Aluva. Neither of the children was wearing the face mask despite being in the midst of a crowd. Similar scenes were witnessed in other parts of the city.
The security personnel at department stores claimed that they did not permit children below 10 from entering the outlet. “We ask one of the parents to stay with the child at the entrance while requesting the other to continue with shopping,” a security official said.
Advising parents that children below 10 years should be kept indoors in view of the pandemic, Dr. S. Sachidananda Kamath, former national president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), said that they remained vulnerable to COVID-19.
“Children may find it difficult to cope with the situation once they are infected. The challenges will be higher when schools re-open for the new academic year. A detailed list of dos and dont’s should be in place before that,” he said. The Kerala chapter of the IAP is working on the draft guidelines for schools, Dr. Kamath added.