Indore: While experts anticipate that a third likely wave of Covid-19 will affect children the most, the overall number of cases of Covid-19 till July 31 showed that children have better immunity compared to adults in fighting the deadly disease and only 11.84 per cent of infected patients were below the age of 20 years. Moreover, those below the age of 10 years are only 3.57 per cent.

However, when comparing it with the data of July, people affected below age 20 years are six per cent more than the overall percentage of children being affected—that is 17.81. In July, as many as 146 patients tested positive, which included 26 patients below the age of 20 years. However, those affected most in the last one and a half years are the young population of age between 20 and 40 years which shared 42.16 percent share of the total number of positive cases.

According to the data, till July 31, 152,992 patients tested positive and the total number of infected patients falling between age 0-20 is 18,112, including 10,391 males and 7,793 females. The data also suggests that the number of men is more in terms of infected patients and also in terms of deaths that took place in the city in all age groups.

Raising a red flag

"People under 20 years of age tested positive but the number is fewer compared to other age groups. Fortunately, children were less infected in the past few months compared to the other age groups. It doesn’t mean that parents can lower their guard, but the responsibility has increased even more as most of the adults would’ve been vaccinated. But the number of patients will increase again due to the carelessness of people as many aren’t following strict Covid protocols—social distancing, sanitisers and masks," said Dr Anil Dongre, in-charge, district Covid control room.

‘Children remain prone’

"We’ve seen about 20 per cent of the children being affected in the last two waves of Covid-19 and the number is similar in July, as well. People need to be more cautious now as most adults would’ve been vaccinated and those remaining prone are children," remarked Dr Hemant Jain, superintendent, Chacha Nehru Hospital.

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