The Karnataka government will initiate a programme to test 15 million children to identify vulnerable groups and monitor them closely to mitigate the impact of a possible Covid-19 third wave, the state health minister said on Tuesday.
The programme, ‘Arogya Nandana’, will be launched by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai soon, said K Sudhakar, Karnataka’s minister for health, family welfare and medical education.
“There are about 1.5 crore children in the state and all of them will be subjected to tests under this initiative,” he said. “Children with less immunity power and other comorbidities will be identified and they will be provided with nutritious food and supplements to boost immunity. All precautionary measures will be taken to monitor their health.”
The initiative comes even as the state is reporting nearly 1,000 daily Covid cases. Karnataka reported 1,065 new Covid-19 cases, including 270 in Bengaluru Urban, on Monday, according to health department data.
As of now, children below 18 years are not eligible for vaccination, which leaves them as the most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
The state government has also decided to reopen schools from August 23 for classes 9 to 12 in districts where the Covid test positivity rate is less than 2%, which adds to the risk of them contracting the virus while out of the safety of their homes.
{{/usCountry}}The state government has also decided to reopen schools from August 23 for classes 9 to 12 in districts where the Covid test positivity rate is less than 2%, which adds to the risk of them contracting the virus while out of the safety of their homes.
{{/usCountry}}An expert committee, led by cardiologist Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, submitted an interim report to the state government on June 22, recommending the reopening of schools and colleges despite the looming threat of a third wave.
Emphasising that education is a fundamental right of the child, the government-appointed technical advisory committee (TAC), in its recommendations, said reopening schools would optimise learning, physical and mental health, and cater to nutritional aspects of children.
According to the TAC, there are 23,838,995 people below the age of 18 in the state, accounting for 34% of Karnataka population.
The state government has decided to resume physical classes for students in graduate courses and started to increase the vaccination coverage. However, experts doubt if the Bommai-led government will be able to achieve such a feat with the previous Yediyurappa government unable to minimise the impact of the second wave as it neglected warnings by the TAC in November last year.
“Among the total Covid-19 infections, children aged between 0-18 years constituted around 8
to 10% during (the) 1st and 2nd wave. Most national and international data indicated that a maximum of 5-7% of such children require hospitalisation. However, a recent data from the USA suggests that children in the age group of 12-17 years requires almost around 31% ICU
admission and among them 5% needed invasive ventilation, but no deaths reported. To meet
the surge in India, specially in Karnataka, we need to be ready for a little higher number to be
requiring hospitalisation,” the TAC report said.
The TAC has estimated the bed requirement according to categories of moderate, best and worst case scenarios.
According to its estimates, the state government would require around 51,008 beds, including 6,801 ICU/HDU beds, in the best case scenario. In the moderate case scenario, 73,963 beds are required. In the worst case scenario, the TAC has estimated the bed requirement of 95,216, including 13602 ICU/HDU beds.
For testing, the TAC has said children are comfortable with non-conventional methods, such as nasal and oropharyngeal swabs, gargle and salivary RT-PCR.