New Delhi: As the central government lowers the COVID-19 vaccination age for people 18 years and above, there is a call for including minors in the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
More than 11 per cent of the total people infected with coronavirus in India are less than 20 years of age. While about 3 per cent of the total infected patients are under the age of 10. Nearly 8.50% of the total cases this year were between 10 and 20 years of age, as per government data.
According to Dr Prakhar Garg, Senior Consultant of Yatharth Hospital, in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, who has been treating COVID-19 infected patients for the past one year, there are many more people who are less than 18 years of age infected in the deadly second wave as compared to the previous wave.
“This situation is quite worrisome because kids are likely to infect others at a higher rate than adults which usually puts them in the category of super spreaders. In such a situation, children should be inoculated soon, so that children themselves will be safe and will also protect the people around them,” he said.
Further, Dr Garg said that the rate of immunity in children is also higher than that of adults, due to which the corona vaccine can prove more effective on children than adults.
According to Maharashtra’s Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD), in the last two months, coronavirus engulfed over 99,000 people aged between 11 and 20 years. In the last 2 months, more than 38,000 children below the age of 11 years contracted COVID-19 infection during the second wave.
About 9 per cent of people under the age of 20 were found to be infected in the last two months. This data of the Maharashtra government was from February 15 to April 15, 2021.