When the COVID-19 virus first struck, experts had said that specific age groups would be affected more. But that was true only for a little while. With the second wave, not just young adults but children too are falling prey to this deadly virus. The researchers are trying to bring out vaccines for the kids as well but it's still in its trial stage. The question is whether India is equipped to handle it if our kids start getting affected as well? The students of Presidency University have come forward to help with that.
The Presidency University's Students' Council is donating Rs 3 lakh, which is 40 per cent of their union's budget that is earmarked for the college fest, to the Institute of Child Health to help children who are being affected by COVID-19. "We have 38 per cent of our budget earmarked for the fest. We rounded it off to 40 per cent and are donating more than Rs 3 lakh to the ICH. We will be handing the funds over to the officials soon," said Deeprajit Debnath, a third-year student pursuing his undergraduate degree in Economics and the Assistant General Secretary of the council.
Since Presidency does not have a union, the funds are with the authorities. "Since we follow a council model, our treasurer has to be someone from the authorities. We have to get a permit for any expenditure and the VC has to approve it. We had demanded that we want to donate the money for this purpose and the VC approved it within two weeks," added Deeprajit. "We will be transferring the funds very shortly to the ICH and will discuss how they want to spend it. But it will only be used to help children affected by COVID-19," he added.
While India has not reported a significant number of minors being affected or dying due to COVID-19, other countries are reporting a spike in the statistics. European countries have already started vaccinating their young. The European Medicines Agency has approved the Pfizer or BioNTech vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds last week. This is the first vaccine to get the green light for children in Europe while France announced on June 2 that it will start administering COVID-19 vaccines to all 12 to 18-year-olds from June 15. Italy and Germany are both offering vaccinations for everyone above 12 years of age.
In India, the vaccines for children are still in the trial phase. "COVAXIN and Zydus vaccines are already being tested in children. We will need around 25 crore doses. We will have to take this into account when we strategise. Information and analysis are continually being examined," said Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog as per reports. But the civil society is yet to notice that the number of minor deaths is on the rise.
