Friday, March 29, 2024

Amid vaccine shortage, Maharashtra now sees rising COVID infection among children

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By Express News Service
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday recommended extension of the lockdown till May 31 amid a substantial decline in Covid cases in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

But the authorities are worried over a growing number of children being infected in the state. Over the last month, over 68,000 children up to 10 years old have been infected by the virus.

While announcing the cabinet decision to extend the lockdown, state Health minister Rajesh Tope said the government has decided to temporarily suspend inoculation for the 18-45-year age group due to the vaccine shortage.

He said the priority was to give a second dose to those above 45 years old.

“If we delay the second dose to them, then the effect of the first dose will go away. So, the government has taken a conscious decision of suspending vaccination for the 18-45-year age group,” he said.

On the other hand, the state health department data on May 11 showed that a total of 1,56,146 children were infected against 1,34,470 children infected on May 1. The count was 88,827 on April 3 across the state.

“The infection in children up to 10 years old is around 3.08% while those aged between 11-20 years, the positive cases are 3,56,035, which is 6.97%,” stated in the report.

As many as 17.80% of adults in the 21-to-30-year group were infected while the percentage for the 31-40-year group was 22.29%. It was 18.10% in 41-50-year age bracket and 18.10% in the 41-50 age group. The infection among the 51-60 age group was 14.92%.

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to inform the court about the steps it was taking to check the spread of COVID-19 among children.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni asked the state to file a reply on the matter by May 19, the next date of hearing.

As experts had cautioned the nation to brace for the third wave of the pandemic, in which children might be most vulnerable, the authorities must take pre-emptive steps and strengthen health infrastructure in the state, the court said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) counsel, senior advocate Anil Sakhre told the High Court that till April 2021, 10,000 children under the age of 10 had contracted COVID-19 and 17 had died of the infection.

At least 33 children between the ages of 10 and 18 had died in the city of COVID-19 so far, Sakhre told the court.

To this, the court said the state must consult experts, paediatricians and other stakeholders to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure for children and their caregivers.

“Children will be accompanied by their mothers or other caregivers. Make separate arrangements for their mothers and caregivers too. File a reply on what is being done,” the court said.

The state reported 46,781 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, an uptick from 40,956 a day ago, and 816 deaths, the health department said.

The caseload increased to 52,26,710, while death toll reached 78,007, it said.

On Tuesday Maharashtra had reported 40,956 COVID-19 cases, 793 deaths and 71,966 recoveries.

Of 816 fatalities, 387 had occurred in the past 48 hours, 193 last week and the rest even before that but were added to the tally on Wednesday.

As many as 58,805 patients were discharged from hospitals taking the total of recoveries to 46,00,196.

Maharashtra now has 5,46,129 active cases.

The state’s COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 88.01 per cent from Tuesday’s 87.67 per cent, while the fatality rate stood at 1.49 per cent, the department said.

The positivity rate is still 17.36 per cent, it added.

Mumbai city saw2,104 new cases, an increase from 1,717 a day ago, taking its tally to 6,81,233.

The state capital’s fatality count rose to 13,972 with 66 new deaths.

The Nashik division reported 6,494 new cases and 137 deaths.

The majority of infections were reported from Nashik city (1,225) and Ahmednagar district (2,381).

Out of 137 fatalities in Nashik division, 41 and 34 people died in Nashik city and rural parts of Nashik district, respectively, while 22 patients died in Ahmednagar district.

The Pune division reported a surge in cases with Pune rural area accounting for 4,363 cases out of 12,903.

Other districts and main cities in the division also reported cases in four digits – 2,021 in Pune city, 3,152 in neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad, 1,276 in Solapur rural and 1,958 in Satara district.

Out of 125 deaths in the division, 40 were reported from Pune city, 33 in Pune rural, 31 in Solapur rural and 16 in Satara, the department said.

The Kolhapur division reported 5,073 new cases and 72 deaths.

Kolhapur and Sangli districts contributed 1,599 and 1,375 cases, respectively.

Kolhapur and Sangli districts reported 26 and 18 deaths, respectively, while 15 deaths were reported in coastal Sindhudurg district.

Aurangabad division added 2,159 cases while 61 succumbed to the infection, 25 of them in Jalna district.

The Latur division added 2,908 COVID-19 cases of which 1,258 came from Beed district alone.

Out of 108 deaths in the division, 50 were reported from Beed, 20 from Osmanabad, 18 from Nanded and 12 from Latur district.

Akola division reported 5,042 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,553 in Buldhana district and 1,099 in Amravati.

Also, 65 deaths were reported in the division of which Yavatmal, Akola and Amarawati districts accounted for 14, 13 and 12fatalities, respectively.

The Nagpur division’s caseload went up by 5,384, including 1,466 in Nagpur city and 1,131 in rural parts of Nagpur district.

The city also accounted for 35 of 119 deaths in the division.

With 2,52,167 coronavirus tests conducted in the state during the day, the tally rose to 3,01,00,958.

Maharashtra’s COVID-19 tally is as follows: Positive cases: 52,26,710; new cases 46,781; death toll 78,007; discharged 46,00,196; active cases: 5,46,129; people tested so far 3,01,00,958.

Maharashtra’s per day COVID-19 growth rate is 0.8 per cent, which is half of the country’s average of 1.4 per cent, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday.

He said that out of 36 states, Maharashtra is at the 30th position in terms of the growth of coronavirus infection.

“Maharashtra’s COVID-19 growth rate is merely half of the country’s daily growth rate. The state’s per day growth rate is 0.8 per cent as against the country’s rate of 1.4 per cent. The state is carrying out around two lakh tests on a daily basis while per million testing is around 2.50 lakh. It is a very good sign for us,” he said.

Tope, however, cautioned by saying, “The strict measures under the ‘Break the Chain’ directives introduced by the Maharashtra government have definitely brought down the number of COVID-19 cases, but the curve is not stable yet. There are some 12-15 districts in the state that have shown a decline in COVID-19 cases,” he said.

There are some districts where the number of cases are still a cause of concern for the state, the minister said.

“We need to focus on these districts more. The positivity rate is still not below 10 per cent. These are the reasons why cabinet ministers are in favour of extending lockdown in the state,” he added.

The number of active cases had touched almost seven lakh last week, but we managed to bring it down to some five lakhs, he said.

The COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra has gone up to 52,26,710 with 46,781 new cases on Wednesday, while the death toll has reached 78,007.

(With PTI Inputs)

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