Children at risk, say experts

‘They are the expected targets during the third wave with no vaccination policy in place yet for them’

Vaccine hesitancy is still being witnessed in some pockets despite its advantages seen first hand by people. Those fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 had no severe infection and did not need oxygen during hospitalisation in Kurnool and Anantapur districts.

The two districts did not witness any mortality among this group after the second wave, point out pulmonologist Kona Muralidhar and Kurnool District Immunisation Officer K. Visveswara Reddy from their personal experience.

Mr. Muralidhar says that during the past 30 days all the COVID-19 cases admitted to KIMS Saveera were with mild symptoms and required no oxygen or ventilator support. An interesting observation was that all those patients were aged above 65 years, but got treated as outpatients. The common thread among them was they attended mass religious gatherings or social gatherings like weddings.