Children with mild symptoms could be treated at home in isolation, monitored

Revised
Done/ALVI
Kanpur: Even as the district prepares for the upcoming third wave of Covid-19 pandemic that may affect the children, the ministry of health on Wednesday issued a set of guidelines for their treatment. According to the guidelines, only seriously infected children will need to be hospitalized and the rest can be treated at home in isolation.
There is an apprehension children may be affected in the third wave and the Kanpur Nagar district administration and the health department have been gearing up to tackle the new Covid challenge. The measures being taken in advance include increasing paediatric beds and arranging for medicines, oqygen and appropriate medical manpower in the district.
The guidelines say that only children whose oxygen level falls below 90 percent need hospitalization. Use of Remdesivir injection, ivermectin and steroids in their treatment has been restricted. These medicines can be administered only for seriously ill children, state the guidelines.
According to the guidelines, children whose oxygen level is below 90 percent, have serious pneumonia infection, suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome must be admitted to the Covid hospital and shifted to ICU depending on the condition. Steroid could also be administered to such children.
Children who complain of abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea or have fever should be treated as Covid patients. Their stool examination would confirm whether they are corona infected or not.
In another significant guideline, the health ministry stated that doctors treating an infected child must be alert as he/she might be suffering from multi system inflammatory syndrome.
Only seriously infected children would be admitted in the hospital while the rest could be treated at home subject to the condition after their regular monitoring.
Majority of children with Covid infection might be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic or have common symptoms like fever, cough, breathlessness/ shortness of breath , fatigue, myalgia, rhinorrhea, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of smell and taste, etc., while many have gastrointestinal symptoms, the guidelines stated.
Children with moderate Covid-19 infection must be admitted in a dedicated Covid hospital or secondary level healthcare facility and should be monitored for clinical progress.
Children with oxygen level less than 90 percent have been categorized as having severe Covid-19 infection. They may have severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome or pneumonia with cyanosis. Such children should be admitted in a dedicated Covid hospital /secondary /tertiary level health care facility, the guidelines further state.