THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT

COVID-19 IS EXPECTED TO BE MOST DAMAGING FOR CHILDREN IN POOR COUNTRIES, UNDOING THE PROGRESS MADE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS ON CHILD MORTALITY

- Shougat Dasgupta

COVID-19 disproportionately kills older people. In India, reports show, about 75 per cent of those who have died (543 at the time of writing) were over 60 years of age, and 42 per cent were 75 and older. Significantly, over 83 per cent of those who have died, suffered from the likes of diabetes, cardiac diseases and high blood pressure. In New York City, the most severely affected city in the US, the country with the most COVID-19 infections and deaths in the world, just 0.04 per cent of those who have died are under 18 years old. None of this is to say children cannot die of the virus. On April 18, a 45-day-old infant succumbed to COVID-19 at Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College and dozens of children in India have been infected. A recent international study suggests that for every child requiring intensive care, some 2,381 children have been infected. Still, the chief burden borne by children around the world has been psychological.