By Krishna N. Das

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Indian governments have reserved nearly twice the number of COVID-19 child hospital beds than federal experts recommended, out of concern about being unprepared. Government data shows that.

Doctors say that not all children have required critical care.

The Health Ministry also said on Monday that only 5% to 10% of all those people infected in India have sought hospitalisation https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-covid-19-cases-multiply-vulnerable-groups-given-vaccine-boosters-2022-01-10, compared with 20% to 23% during the last major wave. According to the authorities, most victims have not shown any symptoms at all or have made rapid recovery.

India had 179,723 cases of new infections on Monday. This is the second highest number in the world, after the United States. Only Brazil and the United States had more deaths than India, which saw death rates rise by 146 to 483,936, a decrease of 2%.

The data showed India had more than 24,000 ICU beds for children, as opposed to the recommendation of 10,000 by a federal taskforce. Similar to the suggestion of 27,682, there are 64.796 non ICU beds for children.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bihar’s eastern state has set aside 16 ICU beds to treat children with COVID-19 since April.

Raj Kamal Choudhary is an associate professor of medicine at this hospital, which has approximately 800 beds. He said, “None have been occupied since its inception, but we have retained them in case of third wave effects to kids.”

States are prepared and scared because children below the age of 15 haven’t been vaccinated. States should be able to provide more beds than is recommended.

There is no centralised public data on how many children have needed hospital care due to COVID-19 in India, but countries such as the United States https://www.reuters.com/world/us/covid-19-hospitalization-surge-among-us-children-spurs-new-omicron-concerns-2021-12-30 and Britain have seen a rise in hospitalisation in children due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

India is home to 139,000 COVID-19 hospital beds. This compares with the recommended number of 195.390. Experts have suggested that the number of oxygen-supported beds in India has increased to almost 495,000. However, this figure is lower than the 519,900 recommended by experts.

However, basic isolation beds are available at more than one million.