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Children may act as carriers of COVID-19: Official

25 May 2020, 08:51

Though data shows that children are less affected by COVID-19, they may still fall ill and can be carriers of the virus. Parents are, therefore, urged to keep their children safe during Eid celebrations by following the instructions by health authorities, according to Dr. Sadriya Al Khoji, National Lead, Healthy Children and Adolescents.

“They may act as carriers of the virus and spread it to others who may be at risk of developing complications if infected. Celebrate Eid this year with your children at home,” she said, as part of a social media campaign by the Ministry of Public Health, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), yesterday. "While this is a very special occasion for us and our children, we must prioritise their safety, our safety and that of our family and friends who may be more at risk,” she added.

On May 21, health authorities revealed weekly statistics on the COVID-19 cases. They said that most of those infected were in the age group of 25-34 years, constituting 35% of the patients. They are followed by the age group 35-44 years (27% of cases), and the 15-24 age group.

It has been seen that those above 45 years are most vulnerable to severe infections and complications from the virus and require intensive care. On average, the number of cases that needed to enter intensive care during the past week was 20 cases per day, up from 14 per day during the previous week.

Some 24 people were admitted to intensive care due to the virus yesterday bringing the total number of cases in intensive care to 188 cases. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that all age groups can catch COVID-19, evidence to date suggests that children and adolescents are less likely to get severe disease, but severe cases and death can still happen in these age groups.

WHO has said, “While we are still learning about how COVID-19 affects people, older persons (e.g. persons over 60 years) and persons with preexisting medical conditions, like high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes, appear to develop serious illness more often than others. "As this is a new virus, we are still learning about how it affects children and adolescents.”

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