Exclusive: Need to amp up vaccination in kids to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 - Experts

"Vaccination in children should be ramped up for them to achieve immunity, to break the chain of infection, and also to achieve herd immunity," says Dr Farah Ingale.  

New Delhi: During the third wave of COVID-19 in India, we have witnessed a rise in the novel coronavirus cases among children. Opening up about the ordeal of her 11-month-old baby Sufi testing positive for COVID, Bade Acche Lagte Hain actor Nakuul Mehta’s wife wrote on Instagram, “While most of you may know that my husband tested positive 2 weeks ago, I also got the symptoms a couple of days later. I thought not attending my sister’s wedding was the worse that covid could do to me, not realizing that what I was about to experience in the coming week were to be the hardest days of my life, yet. Sufi started developing fever a day after I tested positive and it refused to come down in spite of water sponges and medication”. 

Similarly, actors Kishwer Merchant and Aditi Malik’s babies also contracted the virus during the third wave - which is mostly dominated by the Omicron variant. While all three of them have recovered, we got in touch with experts to understand the reason behind the rise in COVID-19 cases among the kids.

“Yes, more kids are getting infected with Omicron, as Omicron is highly transmissible and infectious though less virulent. And kids we know do not follow COVID-19 appropriate behavior and also till now, the kids have not been vaccinated. Hence they don’t have vaccine-induced immunity and are more prone to infection,” says Dr Farah Ingale, Director-Internal Medicine, Fortis Hiranandani Hospital Vashi.