Mild COVID-19 re-infections being reported in children, can be cured at home: Expert

Dr. Nitin Verma, Director of Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital in Delhi said that children who were infected with coronavirus in January or April are again being infected with the virus. However, he assured that the infections are mild and can be managed at home. Dr. Verma also underscored that other seasonal illnesses are also causing sickness in children.

"I have a large number of cases who have had COVID once and are again being infected with the COVID for the second time. So a child who was infected with COVID in January was again infected in April and who had it in April got it again now", Dr. Verma told ANI. The expert further said that if it is a different strain of the virus, then the natural immunity doesn't work and the child would get infected again. 

Talking about other seasonal illnesses, Dr. Verma said, "COVID has been going on and even now I get almost four to five children who are down and are proven cases of COVID in a day. There is a lot of hand foot and mouth disease, especially among small children going to school. There are a lot of viral fevers which are the beginning cases of Dengue and recently we have started getting cases of swine flu also."

Cases are mild, can be managed at home: Dr. Verma

The expert asserted that the cases in children are mild and the severity is only reported in adults, however, the adults have the advantage of protection through vaccines. "The advantage in the adults is that they also have taken their vaccine. So their symptoms are a little bit more but the children are having mild to moderate severity and all are being managed in the house itself", he added.

Talking about the symptoms among children, Dr. Verma said that fever, sore throat, rashes as well as vomiting and diarrhoea are the common symptoms being reported. He underscored that many cases of COVID in kids are surfacing in schools along with a lot of hand, foot and mouth diseases, which makes it important to focus on the school environment.  

"So obviously, we need to focus on the school environment so that at the schools make sure that masks are made compulsory. You know the time when children are eating their meals, they are dispersed so that they are not close to each other. Then that’s one way that we can prevent the spread of COVID in schools", Dr. Verma added. However, he argued against closing down schools due to COVID-19 unless it is absolutely necessary.