Children of age group 0-14 years least affected by Covid-19: Govt

New Delhi: It may be news of worth for parents worried about their children from getting infected with coronavirus as Union Health Ministry has on Friday stated that children in the age group of 0-14 years are least affected by Covid-19.

In a written reply, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed the Lok Sabha that the infections among children are mild and most of these children infected with Covid-19 remain asymptomatic.

In reply to a question asked by JD-U members Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh and Dinesh Chandra Yadav seeking details of the action plan to control and minimise the adverse effects of Covid-19 on such children, the Union Health Minister said, "No specific action plan has been formulated in the current response phase to minimise the adverse effects of Covid-19 on such children as the infections among children are mild and most of these children infected with Covid-19 remain asymptomatic."

"Very rarely a severe illness, in form of the multi-system inflammatory syndrome, has been identified and it happens usually after 3 to 6 weeks after the Covid-19 infection. Department of Pediatrics, AIIMS, is documenting the long term effect of Covid-19 infection in children," the minister said.

However, the Health Ministry has denied having any information about any report prepared by CSE regarding the effect of Covid-19 on children aged between 0-14 years in the country. In his reply, Vardhan said, "The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a non-governmental organization working in the area of environmental issues and the Health Ministry is not aware of any report prepared by CSE regarding the effect of Covid-19 on children."

Notably, the CSE in its annual state of environment report released in February had stated that around 375 million children (aged between 0-14 years) in India may suffer from the long-lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including malnutrition to loss of education and work productivity.