15 more children get infected in Gautam Budh Nagar within a day, experts advise caution

The Gautam Budh Nagar health department is concerned about the rise in cases among children, officials said Thursday, adding that according to data from the past three days, 31% of all cases reported in Gautam Budh Nagar were children. The number is slightly lower in Uttar Pradesh–21%.

Gautam Budh Nagar reported 44 Covid cases on Thursday, of which 15 were children. On Wednesday, 33 cases were reported, of which 10 were children, and 20 cases were reported on Tuesday, of which eight were children, shows the data.

Though the rate of infection in children is higher than ever before in Gautam Budh Nagar, doctors and health experts are against the closure of schools which might cause unnecessary panic among parents. Experts also say that the opening of schools may not be the primary reason for the increase in cases.

“We need to realise that almost all adults are fully vaccinated, while the vaccine is not even available for children under 12 years yet. It is likely that more children are getting affected because they are not immune. Additionally, Covid-appropriate behaviour has suddenly stopped. People have completely stopped wearing masks and sanitising themselves in the past few days. That is precisely when cases started increasing,” said Brigadier Dr Rakesh Gupta (retired), director, Government Institute of Medical Sciences.

Doctors suggest that schools remain open with necessary precautions, Covid guidelines and improved immunisation among children.

“Schools have already remained shut for almost two years, which is not healthy for the overall development of children. If schools are closed again, the holistic development of children will suffer, which includes their mental, social, emotional and spiritual growth. This comes only with interaction with their peers and teachers,” said Dr DK Gupta, chairman, Felix Hospital.

He added that Covid-appropriate behaviour, such as wearing masks and social distancing should instead be mandated again.

“What is urgently required is better immunisation of children. Vaccines for children under 12 years should also be approved. Additionally, Corbevax for the 12-15 age group should be allowed in private hospitals also for better coverage. The health department needs to encourage more people to get their children vaccinated at the earliest,” said Dr Gupta.

Gautam Budh Nagar’s chief medical officer Dr Sunil Sharma also said that people should not panic. While there is an increase in Covid cases, this is not a wave, he said, since the daily increase in cases is not much so far. He also said that schools will not be asked to close for now, unless there are several cases being reported from one school.

Meanwhile, with 44 and 18 new cases, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad contributed to about 69% of the Covid cases reported in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, officials said. According to data from the health department, the state reported 90 new Covid cases on Thursday. While Gautam Budh Nagar’s positivity rate was less than 1% till a week ago, it is now 5.5%. Ghaziabad too recorded a marginal rise in positivity rate from 0.12% a week ago to 0.19% now.

Positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who test positive for the virus compared to all those who have been tested for it.

Officials said that the state is now focussing on the two districts and will send more samples for genome sequencing to determine which variant of Covid the patient has contracted. The new XE variant of coronavirus is already leading to a rise in cases in Gujarat and some other states, health officials said.

“We had a meeting at the state level and the number of cases has definitely increased in Noida and Ghaziabad. This is because these two cities are the gateways of the state, with direct links to Delhi, where cases also are on the rise. On Thursday, we sent all samples with a CT value less than 30 for genome sequencing,” said Dr Sunil Sharma.

CT value or Cycle Threshold value refers to the number of cycles needed for the virus to reach a detectable stage– the lower the CT value, the higher the infection or viral load. So, samples with lower CT values are sent for genome sequencing.

Dr Sharma added that though no case of the new XE variant of Covid-19 has been found in Gautam Budh Nagar yet, on Thursday, 68 samples were sent to National Centre for Disease Control for genome sequencing.