2 February 2022 07:59 am Views - 195
By Sheain Fernandopulle
In the wake of the death of a grade six student from Marawila due to COVID-19, Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH), Director G. Wijesuriya said the inoculation of children under the 12 years of age is still under consideration.
He told the media yesterday that the vaccination drive for any age group is carried out based on proper scientific research. “Several countries have already started vaccinating kids above five. However, we need more time to decide on vaccination drive for kids below 12 as we are yet to receive more scientific data,” he added.
Considering this situation, Dr. Wijesuriya said the parents should be mindful in this regard and not send their children under 12 or any other age group to schools if they have any similar symptoms to COVID-19.
“Parents should not make their own decisions when their children have such symptoms. It is highly advisable to seek immediate medical advice,” he stressed.
“As far the incident where a grade six student from Marawila died due to COVID-19 is concerned, the schoolgirl was suffering from obesity. However, we are yet to receive more information about her,” Dr Wijesuriya stated. “However, the postmortem has confirmed that she had died due to severe pneumonia,” he added.
Meanwhile, a total of 10,815 COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 12 days.