Ghaziabad hospitals were directed to reserve 10 ICU beds for children, in order to gear up for the ‘third wave’ of the pandemic, which is expected to primarily affect children.
Ghaziabad: Private hospitals treating Covid-19 in Ghaziabad have been unable to reserve Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds for Children, as directed by the district magistrate. The beds are either all occupied or barely free.
Arun, supervisor at Columbia Asia hospital said, “As soon as we received the government order, we had reserved more than 10 beds. But even those are occupied and we have only three beds free as of now.”
“All our beds are full right now, the higher department will further decide about the reservation of beds for children,” said the executive at another private hospital.
Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey had directed 30 private hospitals to reserve 10 beds exclusively for children under Paediatric ICU. This came after the experts prediction of the Covid-19 third wave to primarily affect children.
However, there has been no evidence or studies to support the fact that the third wave would predominantly affect children.
Dr. Vandana Sharma, a Delhi based paediatrician said, “Children are usually not affected severely by the virus. Although, the ones seriously affected might develop a condition called Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children(MIS-C), which needs to be monitored and treated by a specialized paediatrician only.”
MIS-C is a serious condition in children which appears to be linked with Covid-19. Due to this, different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “We do not yet know what causes MIS-C. However, we know that many children with MIS-C had the virus that causes Covid19, or had been around someone with COVID-19. MIS-C can be serious, even deadly, but most children who were diagnosed with this condition have gotten better with medical care.”
Dr. Subhash Batra, paediatrician based in Ghaziabad said, “Keeping the future possibilities in mind, we have reserved 10 beds in Paediatric ICU for children with Covid19 in Yashoda Hospital and Research Centre. It is the first hospital in the city to practise this initiative.”
He added, “We have four children admitted there currently. Severely affected children, including those going through MISC, need special care and treatment. Many children who have recovered from the virus develop moderate to serious post-Covid problems. Hence, we also have additional five beds for non-Covid children.”
Sachin (name changed), who has recently recovered from Covid19, said, “I was worried when my wife and I tested positive, only because I have an eight month old daughter. Luckily, my relatives kept the baby until we recovered in home isolation.”
He expressed his concern for other children and said,“The virus is said to affect children comparatively less but from my experience, I believe we shouldn’t rule out any possibility.” “I was lucky enough to keep my daughter away from us but what about others?” he asked.
