Despite the Union governments alert to states to prepare for pediatric care and NITI Aayogs advisory to make preparations for 23% hospitalisation in case of a surge in Covid cases shortly, the state government is more focused on reopening schools. The target of building up Covid infrastructure for children in the state also looks doubtful.The state government had planned 1,000 Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICU), out of which the minimum goal was 10 in each district. But the state health department and the National Health Mission officials could not say anything on the progress of achieving this goal set in June.

Assam is going ahead to complete 10 PICU in each of the district hospitals to treat children below 18 years, while the corresponding figure set for all medical colleges is a minimum of 30. However, the target is yet to be achieved.

Health department sources said five to eight per cent of the total Covid infections in the first and second wave were children in the state. But considering the warning from the Centre, this figure may go up further in a possible third-wave strike. During the fourth nationwide sero survey for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the Indian Council of Medical Research (Icmr) detected sero prevalence in children on a par with adults in Assam. During the study carried out in the second wave, children between six and 14 years were found to have similar sero prevalence in the range of 39.4% to 52.2%, as in adults.