“However, today we had the first infant death in the valley due to Covid infection. A 15-day-old infant who had underlying serious heart ailment died due to the novel virus,” he said. Dr Nisar said research shows that children are less susceptible to the virus than adults. “School closure and a comparatively lower rate of testing for the novel virus among children could contribute to the low number of reported cases among the group,” he said.
“It is also possible that due to some quirk of biology, children are less susceptible than adults,” he added. Dr Nisar said studies on whether children are also less likely to spread the infection to others have shown mixed results. “A French study found that a nine year old child who attended three different schools while showing symptoms of Covid-19 didn’t infect anyone,” he said.
“But a German study concluded that children could be as infectious as adults,” Dr Nisar said. “In view of mixed results, we should wait for more research results before reopening schools and easing social distancing for children,” he said. “Most children find it difficult to follow social distancing norms and given the large number of students in one classroom and crowded transport, schools can easily turn into infection clusters if children infect teachers or take the infection to the family and neighbourhood, even if they don’t get severe disease themselves,” said Dr Nisar said.