Since The Pandemic, 3.861 Children in North Sumatera Were Exposed to Covid-19

MEDAN, Waspada.co.id – Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, North Sumatera Covid-19 Task Force recorded that as many as 3,861 children were exposed to Covid-19.

“The number of cases in the last six months was seen nearly 2000 children exposed. As of today, since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of cases has been 3.861. The significant increase from April is very high, three times what is reported every week,” said dr Inke Nadia Lubis, Thursday, July 1.

It was stated, in accordance with the increase in the number of cases in regencies/cities since the beginning of the pandemic in North Sumatera occurred in the three regions. And the highest occurred in Deliserdang County and Medan with a 72-percent percentage.

“Then three cities in Simalungun, Pematangsiantar, Tebingtinggi were merged into one. The other areas has an under one percent,” added Inke.

Inke further said that symptoms in children are usually milder, so they are potentially contagious. Screening methods that have been used by adults to check body temperature, obvious symptoms such as cough and cold, were not found in children.

“That’s why we only rely on examination and not do swab, then we let the children to school, this is still a risk of transmitting it. That is precisely it’s easy to miss, because there are no symptoms,” she explained.

Although the impact is not too big, Inke said that without symptoms, children can infect teachers at school or when they return home they can infect their parents. Thus, it will lead to higher risk.

“However, it was recently reported that there was a long-term impact due to exposure to Covid-19 that could interfere with their activities. Children could be less active for 3-6 months after exposure,” added Inke again.

Hence, according to Inke, vaccination for children is important and now has been approved, not only for Covid-19 but also for other diseases. Because 35 percent of the children exposed to Covid-19 are elementary school age.

“That’s actually when we opened the school, we considered with the existing data that we have, the most Covid-19 cases are in elementary school and most deaths in that age,” she concluded. (wol/aa/dvi/data3)

editor AUSTIN TUMENGKOL