Children not immune from Covid but symptoms minimum: Centre

The Centre on Saturday said children are not immune from the infection, but the impact is minimal. “If children get affected by Covid, either there will be no symptoms or there will be minimal symptoms. They do not require hospitalisation generally,” Niti Aayog (health) member VK Paul said on Saturday, during the press briefing of the Union health ministry.

Explaining three points about Covid-19 infection among children, Dr Paul said that children are not immune from this infection and they can infect others but children do not generally suffer from severe infection. Health infrastructure should be ramped up to treat Covid-19 among children, but it is most important to not let them become a part of the transmission chain in the first place, Dr Paul said.

“Some facts are clear in front of us. Children can be infected and they can be infected to quite an extent. It can’t be said with certainty that the infection among children is comparatively less. For example, the December-January serosurvey revealed that the seropositivity rate among children and older is almost the same,” Dr Paul said.