Vijayawada: It’s not yet the second wave have completely worn out, the presumed third wave descended upon the people of Andhra Pradesh as the state registered nearly 24,000 Covid cases among children below the age of 18 in the span of two weeks.
The major hotspots being East Godavari and Chittoor districts, CM Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken a decision on Monday to set up three paediatric centres in the state with an estimated cost of Rs 540 crore. The government has decided to set up three centres in — Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Vijayawada-Guntur region — and to shell out Rs 180 crore on each centre.
“The wards and paediatric centres should have state-of-art facilities for children. Each and every primary health centre should comprise a paediatric care centre. We should be able to procure the required medicines ahead of the third wave. We should be fully prepared to face the challenge,” he said in a meeting with health officials on Monday. He also instructed to have ready the best paediatricians and the paediatrics hospitals in the state.
Meanwhile, as many as 8,000 kids tested positive for Covid-19 from only two districts — East Godavari and Chittoor. Unfortunately, around 2,500 children below the age of five tested positive in the span of two weeks in May from the state. The symptoms wouldn’t show up in children like adults, most of the kids would be asymptomatic but the virus is as fatal for children as it is for adults, warned paediatricians.