The spread of coronavirus disease on the outskirts of AhmedabadMUMBAI - Several Indian states are building facilities with more paediatric beds, plus oxygen, due to concern that children returning to school without being vaccinated will be among the most vulnerable during a third wave of coronavirus infections.
"We don't know how the virus will behave, but we cannot afford to be unprepared this time around," Suhas Prabhu, who heads the Paediatric Task Force in the big western state of Maharashtra, said.The Maharashtra government has stockpiled medicines, and built facilities for additional pediatric beds and oxygen provisions in new centres in Mumbai and Aurangabad.
In neighbouring Gujarat, authorities have set up 15,000 pediatric oxygen beds, health commissioner Jai Prakash Shivahare said.