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  AIIMS survey finds over 50% children had asymptomatic Covid infection It’s highly unlikely that any future wave of Covid-19 by the prevailing variants of coronavirus will disproportionately affect children aged two years or older, a serosurvey conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, has found. This comes against the backdrop of a number of officials and health experts raising an alarm about the possible third wave affecting children more than adults. AIIMS collected data between March 15 and June 10, 2021, from 4,509 participants across four states, of which 700 were less than 18 years of age and 3,809 were above it. The interim study found seroprevalence (the prevalence of Covid antibodies) in 55.7 per cent of those between 2 and 17 years of age, and in 63.5 per cent of those above 18. “There was no statistically significant difference in prevalence between adults and children,” the study said. A large proportion of children had asymptomatic...

The Centre on Tuesday permitted all private hospitals to give Covid vaccine if they adhere to the laid down normsThe Centre on Tuesday permitted all private hospitals to give Covid vaccine if they adhere to the laid down norms The Centre on Tuesday permitted all private hospitals to give COVID vaccine if they adhere to the laid down norms and also asked the states and union territories to utilise the optimum capacity of private medical facilities empanelled under three categories. The states and Union territories were also urged not to store, reserve, conserve or create a buffer stock of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Union Health ministry said in a statement, a day after the start of the second phase of India’s inoculation drive in which the coverage has been expanded to include everyone above 60 and those over 45 with specified co-morbidities. At an official review meeting with the states, the Centre reiterated there is no shortage of the vaccines and hence, adequate vaccine doses should...