Children face risk of contracting Covid, but infection less severe among them: IGIB chief | India News
NEW DELHI: Children do face the risk of contracting the coronavirus infection, but it tends to be less severe among them, Anurag Agrawal, director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), said on Monday.
Agrawal, whose institute has conducted a countrywide sero survey of employees of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) sister organisations, said children also act as a “backdoor passage” for the infection in their parents and grandparents.
Reacting to a tweet on the rate of Covid-19 by age group in Bolton, United Kingdom, Agrawal tweeted, “(This) reaffirms a simple but overlooked fact. Children aren’t really protected against infection. We know that from this and serosurveys.”
“The infection tends to be less severe, which isn’t enough when cases rise and some are severe. It is also a backdoor passage to (grand) parents,” he said.
The IGIB, an institute under the CSIR, has been involved in the genome sequencing of coronavirus.
There have been various opinions by experts on the spread of Covid-19 in children and the impact of the third wave of the pandemic on them.
Earlier in the day, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria said at a press conference that so far, there is no evidence that children will be severely or more affected in the third wave of Covid-19.
“Data from the first and the second wave shows that children are usually protected from Covid and even if they get it, they have a mild infection,” he said.
Agrawal, whose institute has conducted a countrywide sero survey of employees of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) sister organisations, said children also act as a “backdoor passage” for the infection in their parents and grandparents.
Reacting to a tweet on the rate of Covid-19 by age group in Bolton, United Kingdom, Agrawal tweeted, “(This) reaffirms a simple but overlooked fact. Children aren’t really protected against infection. We know that from this and serosurveys.”
“The infection tends to be less severe, which isn’t enough when cases rise and some are severe. It is also a backdoor passage to (grand) parents,” he said.
The IGIB, an institute under the CSIR, has been involved in the genome sequencing of coronavirus.
There have been various opinions by experts on the spread of Covid-19 in children and the impact of the third wave of the pandemic on them.
Earlier in the day, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria said at a press conference that so far, there is no evidence that children will be severely or more affected in the third wave of Covid-19.
“Data from the first and the second wave shows that children are usually protected from Covid and even if they get it, they have a mild infection,” he said.
