Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to cancel air services with Singapore, saying that a new Covid-19 variant there can prove dangerous for children.
The new strain of virus detected in Singapore could invade India in the form of a third wave, the chief minister said in a tweet.
He wrote, the new form of Corona that came to Singapore is being said to be extremely dangerous for children, in India it may come as a third wave. My appeal to the central government: 1. Air services with Singapore to be cancelled with immediate effect 2. Priority on vaccine options should be worked out for children too.
Kejriwal gave the warning at a time when the concerns are being raised over a third wave, which many experts believe is likely to affect children the most. The first wave has affected the elderly the most, and the younger people have been infected in the second wave, the experts said.
Phase three is inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus, but it is not clear on what time-scale this phase three will occur. We should be prepared for new waves, said the government’s Principal Scientific Adviser K Vijay Raghavan in his warnings. He added, if correct measures are taken now, the country might dodge it.
Amid this, nations are yet to approve any vaccine for the use of children.However, the US authorised Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid vaccine have been approved for use in children aged between 12 years and 15 years. Bharat Biotech in India is undergoing a clinical trials of Covid vaccine for children.
Meanwhile, the Kejriwal government-led national capital has started showing signs of gradual recovery. The number of daily cases has gone down from the highest seen last month at more than 28,000 to less than 5,000 recorded on Tuesday.