Daily News Capsule

Middle of this covid-19 pandemic, when India is facing its second wave, Principal Scientific Adviser to the government K Vijay Raghavan has said on Wednesday that the third wave of the virus is inevitable. Hence, the third wave of covid-19 may affect children this time.

“Phase three is inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus, but it is not clear on what time-scale this phase three will occur. We should be prepared for new waves,” he said.

Also read| ICMR’s new guidelines: Healthy individuals don’t need RT-PCR test to travel inter-state

As per the expert’s opinions, the third wave of covid-19 may adversely affect the children of India. According to them, the first wave was heavy for the elders, the second wave is affecting youth majorly, and the upcoming third wave may affect children. This can be a dangerous scenario as we don’t have vaccines for this age group.

Pfizer BioNtech vaccine has been approved only for children aged 12-15 years in Canada, and the US is going to approve the vaccine for above 12 years, as per the decision of the FDA.

Related article: Top 10 foods to boost immunity in covid-19

India is already dealing with a shortage of vaccines. Till now only 3 crores people have taken both the doses of the vaccine that is around only 2% of India’s population.

The US Chief Medical Officer Anthony Fauci says, about 85% of the population should be vaccinated to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The third wave of covid-19 is expected to be more destructive. “The thing to understand here is that when the first wave of COVID came, the virus would kill the lungs in 10 days. In the second wave, this time period reduced from 5 to 7 days. And it is being said that in the third wave, it can be even 2 to 3 days,” reports DNA.

Maharashtra government with Brihan Municipal Corporation is preparing for the possible difficulties of the third wave of covid-19 by setting up the pediatric wards in Mumbai and elsewhere in the state.