65.8 pc of paediatric Covid infections due to Delta: Study
Hyderabad: A study conducted on paediatric cases in several government hospitals in the country, including Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, by researchers from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has indicated that the Delta variant was the leading cause of Covid-19 infections among Indian children during the second wave of the pandemic.
The preprint study, available in the online health sciences journal MedRxiv, said that 65.8 per cent of the paediatric Covid infections were due to Delta across the country. In Telangana, 80 per cent of the Covid positive cases among children aged up to 18 years, were due to the Delta variant.
As part of the study, which was led by researchers from ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, a total of 583 paediatric cases aged from 0 to 18 years, those who had tested positive for Covid-19, between March and June, 2021, were considered.
The aim of the study was to identify the SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in the pediatric population of India during the second wave of the pandemic. Symptoms of Covid-19 were reported among 37.2 per cent of children and 14.8 per cent reported to be hospitalized.
“Overall, it was observed that Delta strain was the leading cause of SARS-42 CoV-2 infection in Indian children during the second wave of the pandemic. We emphasize the need for continuous genomic surveillance in SARS-CoV-2 infection even amongst children,” the researchers said.
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