Covid third wave preparation: Ahmedabad begins identifying vulnerable children
PremiumThe survey will help the state make timely arrangements for the children's protection against the virus, officials say
Amid concerns of the third wave approaching, Gujarat's Ahmedabad administration has started paediatric surveillance to identify the children who are most vulnerable to Covid-19.
According to officials, the survey will help the state make timely arrangements for the children's protection against the virus.
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"We have started screening children in the age group of 0-5 years. We have 206 teams of ASHA and Anganwadi workers. They are surveying around 250 houses per day," health officer Sandhya Rathod told news agency ANI.
"We are maintaining a separate list of children suffering from malnutrition and other severe diseases. In the case of the third wave, we can reverse quarantine the high-risk group. I have five teams in Sanand with two doctors and a female health worker in each team," she added.
Ahmedabad District Development Officer (DDO) Arun Mahesh Babu said that children have been categorised into three age groups for the segregation of data.
"We have categorised children in the age groups of 0-5 years, 5-10 years and 10-15 and have taken their data from the Child and Women Development and Primary Education departments. We will keep children in the red category who will be given priority, less vulnerable in yellow and low vulnerability in the green category," said the official.
"In case a variant affecting children is detected, then first of all children in red category will be prioritised for reverse quarantine followed by children in yellow and green categories," he added.
He further stated paediatric surveys will help in data updation and identifying which children are more vulnerable.
"The health infrastructure will also be improvised based on this survey. Arrangements are being made for pediatric ventilators, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at government hospitals. Currently, we are in talks with 20 pediatric hospitals for such arrangements and 14 pediatric specialists have been identified. Pediatric training is also underway at 16 medical colleges," said the DDO.
Cases in Gujarat
Meanwhile, the state on Wednesday saw 644 new cases of coronavirus and 10 casualties that raised the tally of infections to 8,18,351 and toll to 9,965.
Apart from this, 1,675 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the count of recoveries in the state to 7,94,703.
With this, Gujarat is left with 13,683 active cases, of which 346 patients are in critical condition. The recovery rate has improved to 97.11%.
As many as 2,66,222 beneficiaries were vaccinated against Covid-19 on Wednesday, raising the total number of vaccine doses administered in the state to 1,81,80,865.
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