Omicron symptoms among children: Experts list ‘5’ signs of Covid variant. Read here

Infections caused by coronavirus is said to be less severe among children. However, with Covid-19 once again soaring at a raging pace, fueled by the highly contagious Omicron COVID-19 variant, risk of the disease among kids is also rising, especially because they are not yet vaccinated.

Addressing this concern, experts pointed out that even though there is a rise in the number of Covid cases among children, the symptoms are mild. Moreover, the impact of the current surge of Covid-19 cases has not been much on children so far.

“As we all are witnessing a rising number of Covid-19 cases with Omicron and Delta variants being the reason jointly responsible for this rise. The impact on children is not so much because of Omicron till now but the adults are getting affected very much due to this," said Dr Harish Chafle, Senior Consultant - Pulmonology and Critical Care at Global Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, as qouted by Hindustan Times.

Having said this, children are still at risk of developing infection as they are unvaccinated till now. As is well known this variant is highly infectious and that's how the cases are rising rapidly in adults who are coming out in public gatherings," Chafle added.

Symptoms
Regarding symptoms related to Omicron, the expert said that children who have been infected with the new variant show predominantly an upper respiratory tract infection like fever, runny nose, throat pain, body ache and dry cough.

Protection
Since, children are yet to be vaccinated, following proper COVID-appropriate behaviour is paramount like wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, sanitizing regularly etc. Also, the adults at home must maintain caution so that they don't bring the virus home.

"As far as protecting children is concerned, we know wearing masks is the only full proof way we can prevent any variant infecting them. So, for the same to happen in this age group, adults should start following covid appropriate behaviour and set a role model for children to follow. Adults should wear mask properly so that the young ones learn to wear mask and of course follow hand hygiene," adds Dr Chafle, as quoted by HT.