Corona’s third wave: Are these only fears?

The first wave of coronavirus and then the second wave created havoc in India. On the other hand, experts have already warned about the third wave of the corona.

Children are being told the most danger from this wave. In such a situation, the fear of the arrival of this third wave has increased everyone’s concern.

The country is recovering from the second wave of the corona, the figures of corona infection are continuously decreasing, so experts are anticipating a third wave of coronavirus.

This virus has so far made the elderly and young victims. According to experts, children will be more victims in the third wave of the coronavirus.

How worrying is the fear of a third wave

The situation is not completely clear yet whether the third wave of coronavirus will prove to be dangerous for children or not.

Now a report of Lancet, a prestigious journal of medical science has come out in this regard. The report said that there is no concrete evidence so far, based on which it can be said that children are likely to be seriously infected in the third possible wave of the Kovid-19 epidemic.

There are conflicting views about the third wave of Corona. According to an estimate, the third wave of Corona will target children. Whereas according to second estimates, the third wave will not have much effect on children.

Extremist thinking about the third wave will either make us careless or put us in depression. But we should understand very well whether the third wave will come or not, we should be fully prepared because, during the second wave of Corona, the whole country had paid the price of negligence.

The sudden second wave did not give the country a chance to recover.

The second wave of Kovid created havoc in India, which faced the first wave of the epidemic with the help of lockdown. In the last few months, there were more deaths due to corona than in the last year.

Now a report by the State Bank of India has raised concern about the third wave.

In the Ecowrap report of the State Bank of India, it has been said that the second wave of corona can be a deadly third wave.

It has been said in the report that the effect of the third wave of Kovid can last in the country for 97 days i.e. for more than three months. In the five-page report, a lot of possibilities have been expressed regarding the third wave of coronavirus.

It said that if the country is better prepared for the third wave, then the rate of severe cases which require oxygen, ventilators, such cases will decline.

What does the report say on this subject?

SBI in its report estimated that the second wave of coronavirus in the country lasted for 108 days while the third wave could last for 98 days.

In the third wave, the number of severe cases can be brought down from 20 per cent to 5 per cent with the help of better health infrastructure and a rapid spread of the Kovid vaccine.

With this preparation, the number of deaths due to the coronavirus can be reduced by 40,000 compared to the present.

SBI has said in its report that vaccination against the coronavirus should be a major priority. The immunization of about 150-170 million children in the 12-18 age group, adopted by developed countries, needs to be considered.

Many arguments are being given behind the possibility of children getting infected during the third wave. According to experts, young children are more prone to all kinds of diseases due to weak immunity.

Similarly, by July-August, most people across the country will get the corona vaccine. But, since there is no vaccine for children yet. In such a situation, the risk to the children will remain.

According to the World Health Organization, it is better not to apply the current vaccine of Kovid to children under 16 years of age.

Because these vaccines have not yet been tested on young children, much of the information about the effects and side effects of the vaccine is not available.

Signs of infection were seen in many children in India during the first wave and the second wave as well. In the year 2020, even in big countries like America, many children had come under the grip of corona infection.

At the same time, the risk of infection for children in India is increasing continuously. In such a situation, experts recommend taking some special precautions to keep children safe from this infection.

Amidst fears of a third wave of Corona, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has ordered states to submit health infrastructure data for children to the commission.

Recently, NCPCR President Priyank Kanungo said that what is the condition of health infrastructure, has come to the fore in the second wave of the corona.

The bigger problem than the lack of health infrastructure is that the existing infrastructure is also not fully operational.

The main reason for this is the acute shortage of technicians in the medical system and the careless attitude.

During the second wave, many such cases came to the fore when ventilators kept gathering dust in the states, some ventilators were lying idle due to lack of repairs.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has sent a detailed form to the states, in which it has been asked to give the data of total hospitals, nursing homes, first aid centres, doctors, nurses for the treatment of children.

In fact, the data on child health infrastructure appears to be missing in the report in the public domain. Therefore, in such a situation, it will not be easy for the states to give such fine figures to the commission.

The large population on target of the third wave

According to the estimates made based on 2011 census data, the population of children in the age group of 0-4 years is more than 11 crore or about 11 per cent of the total population.

More than 120 million population is of children in the age group of 5-9 years. . That is, about 12.5 per cent of the total population. The population of children in the age group of 10 to 14 years is also more than 120 million i.e. about 12 per cent.

The population of adolescents in the age group of 15-19 years is more than 100 million i.e. around 10 per cent of the total population.

According to the sample registration system released in 2019, 46.9 per cent of the people in India are below 25 years of age.

Therefore, based on the data of this report, then the population coming under the third wave will be around 35-38 per cent.

The claims and preparations of the governments are in their place, but the ground reality is worrying. There are not enough doctors in the village and countryside and there is a huge shortage of child specialists.

This shortcoming cannot be removed overnight, as the backbone of primary education and medical care for the villagers is already broken. Corona has increased the concerns of parents, doctors and governments.

The crisis has also come to those children whose parents have been killed by the first or second wave. Not only is there the problem of their rehabilitation, meanwhile, there are indications of child-trading gangs also becoming active.

There have also been reports of some parents selling their children due to increasing poverty during the Corona period.

Children are the future of the nation but in the absence of ‘willpower, the mistake of not considering the children of the underprivileged as the future of the nation stands as an example of the past.

Child malnutrition, physical abuse, orphans and poor children’s lack of education remained in the dark. Today the constitutional institutions are taking cognizance of the issues of children, so the reason for this is the provision of child rights in the constitution.

Despite this, lakhs of children are illiterate and unable to get quality education under the double education policy.

On the one hand, there are orphans, who have lost their parents in the first and second wave, while in the third wave, the children themselves are feared to be infected. There is a need to adopt a new commission, a new policy for the protection of children.