India vs Corona 3.0 e-Conclave LIVE: ABP News spoke to Dr. Sanjay Rai of AIIMS, Delhi & Dr. CM Singh of AIIMS, Patna to understand whether children are really the most vulnerable group of the third wave. They also talked about the amount of time that could take for the Covid vaccine for children.
'Based on the serosurvey conducted in India, the previous waves have infected children as much as adults. However, children either showed no symptoms or very mild symptoms which is why many assume that the third wave would be very dangerous for children but that's not the case. People who haven't been infected with the virus till now are at risk of getting the infection whether they are children or adults', said Dr. Sanjay Rai.
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Dr. CM Singh says 'that the vaccine trials on children are still going on and that children of the age groups 6-12 and 12-18 have been given the first dose, right now we are administering vaccine on children aged between 2-6. Just like with the adults we administer the second dose after 28 days, after 56 days we will conduct an antibody test on the children that's when we will know how much seroconversion happening. If evidence suggests that the conversion rate is good then we will send the data to DCGI if they find that the rate is acceptable then we might get the approval to administer to children. It will likely take 3-4 months to get the approval but there are many factors to be taken into consideration.
Talking about the need for people to keep adhering to Covid appropriate behaviour, Dr. Sanjay Rai said, the only way we can control the third way is by limiting the susceptible population and that is through vaccines. However, if we are unable to vaccinate the maximum population quickly then there a chance for the third wave to be very severe. Vaccinated people still have the risk of contracting the virus but it is most likely going to be mild almost like a common cold, vaccines reduce the severity of the disease and drastically bring down the mortality rate.
People are being careless when it comes to adhering with Covid appropriate behaviours and if people continue to be lax then it is possible that in the next few months we may see the third wave. However, children are just as susceptible as adults as we have seen in the previous waves, but children did show mild or no symptoms which is likely going to be the case during the third wave; so there really is no need to panic too much. Of course, we should head towards normalcy but with Covid appropriate behaviours and make sure we get vaccinated as soon as possible.