States preparing for next virus wave focus on children

Schools in at least 11 of India’s 28 states have opened ater more than a year of closures, raising worries these could become breeding grounds for transmission of the virus

Several Indian states are building facilities with more pediatric beds, plus oxygen, due to concern that children returning to school without being vaccinated will be among the most vulnerable during the third wave of coronavirus infections.

Health administrators have taken heed of trends in the United States, where a record number of children have been hospitalised as the coronavirus Delta variant, first found in India, has surged through unvaccinated populations.

During a second wave of infections in India that peaked in April and May, hundreds of thousands of people died for want of oxygen and medical facilities, and now there are concerns that another third wave will gather during the winter months.

“We don’t know how the virus will behave, but we cannot afford to be unprepared this time around,” Suhas Prabhu, who heads the Paediatric Task Force in the big western state of Maharashtra, said.

“No mother should have to run around looking for a hospital bed when her child is sick.”

The Maharashtra government has stockpiled medicines, and built facilities for additional pediatric beds and oxygen provisions in new centres in Mumbai and Aurangabad.