By Pearl Gumapos
While the mortality rate among children infected with COVID-19 remains low, it is still not a 0% chance, UP National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Edsel Salvana said on Thursday (August 5)
“Tama naman ‘yung sinabi na mababa ang death rate sa mga bata. Pero hindi ibig sabihin na zero po siya. ‘Yung Delta, mas nakakahawa, so ‘yung capacity niya maka-infect sa mga bata ay mas mataas din,” Salvana said in a Laging Handa public briefing.
The infectious disease specialist said that children are still at risk of contracting COVID-19.
“At risk din po talaga sila. In fact, there’s a syndrome sa mga bata na mukhang auto-immune. ‘Yung tinatawag na Kawasaki’s disease na pwedeng severe po talaga ang pinapakitang [symptoms] sa mga bata,” he said.
“Pwede rin talagang maapektuhan ng malalang COVID-19 ‘yung mga bata,” he added.
Kawasaki disease is an acute feverish illness of unknown cause that primarily affects children younger than 5 years of age.
“Sa pagbabakuna ng mga bata, kailangan muna tapusin ang mga priority groups,” Salvana said.
Meanwhile, Salvana also said that between the two Delta variants, Delta Plus has an additional mutation compared to Delta.
“If we treat all Delta and Delta Plus with extreme caution and we use our “armor”, ‘yung ating face mask, face shield, at physical distancing–makakayanan naman po natin yang Delta, Delta Plus, and other variants,” he said.
Salvana said the new Delta Plus variant is still being studied.
However, new variants should not automatically induce fear among the public.
“It doesn’t mean na ‘pag may nakita kang nakakatakot na mutation [ay] automatically mas nakakahawa na ‘yan or automatically mas mahirap nang gumana ‘yung bakuna diyan. Kailangan pong obserbahan at importante po na manatili tayo sa ating pag-iingat,” he said. -rir
