Health activists with Jan Arogya Abhiyan have issued a statement on Wednesday that public health experts should be included in the Covid taskforce and its report should be made public for examination.
The Jan Arogya Abhiyan (JAA) has expressed shock at the Maharashtra Covid taskforce’s opposition to restarting schools. “We are shocked to know that the expert taskforce in Maharashtra has opposed the decision of the education department to restart schools. Such a decision should be taken based on the science of public health,” Dr Anant Phadke, co-convenor, Jan Arogya Abhiyann, said.
The Indian Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that schools should be opened in areas where the positivity rate is less than 5 per cent and where the number of new cases per million population is less than 20 a day, Dr Abhay Shukla, co-convenor of JAA said.
Jan Arogya Abhiyan has demanded that Anganwadis and primary schools should be re-opened immediately with proper precautions and preparation along with adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour.
Health activists with JAA have issued a statement on Wednesday that public health experts should be included in the taskforce and its report should be made public for examination.
“It seems that the taskforce has not taken into account the issues caused by closure of schools. It has led to a great deal of damage to the physical and psychological health of school children. Children are no longer receiving the cooked supplementary nutrition in Anganwadis and schools. Instead dry ration is given which may or may not be used for children. This has worsened the malnourishment in children from the labour population and this in turn may lead to increased incidence of tuberculosis. This damage needs to be compared with the possible damage due to Covid-19 infection to children and their family members after reopening of schools,” the statement added.
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Health activists have in their statement pointed out that the fourth all-India serosurvey done by the Indian Council of Medical Research in July has shown that on an average 67 per cent of Indians have developed antibodies in their blood and this proportion is almost the same in children. Though the prevalence of Covid-19 infection in children is the same as that in adults as shown by this survey and secondly though the age group 0 to 14 years accounts for about 26 % of the Indian population, children do not account for not even 0.5 per cent of total Covid-19 deaths.
“This is because the incidence of severe Covid cases is comparatively very low in children and mortality is also comparatively much lower. Despite the closure of schools all these months, there does not seem to be any rationale or wisdom in continuing the school closure,” health activists said.
Despite very good precautions, Covid infection will happen in certain children because of aerosol transmission. Though children themselves are much less likely to develop serious Covid-19 disease, they will carry this infection back home and which may be dangerous to their grandparents or are other members of the family who have health problems like diabetes, hypertension and others. Despite this risk, there is not enough justification to continue closure of schools, the statement added.
Instead of dry rations, serving fresh, hot cooked food should be re-started in Anganwadis and primary schools, apart from preparing detailed guidelines and protocol, should be prepared on the basis of the science of public health, said the statement.
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