Revealing this in a statement yesterday, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the situation is alarming because as many deaths involving children in the same age group were recorded throughout last year.
According to Noor Hisham further, a total of 27 children have been admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) so far this year, with 19 of them being under five years old. This is much higher than the eight children, including six aged under five, who were admitted into the same unit, the whole of last year.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba had previously revealed that a total of 82,341 cases of COVID-19 infection involving infants and children, have been recorded in the country from Jan 25 to May 30, 2021.
According to a chart released by the Health Ministry yesterday, the majority of the cases (27,402) involved children aged between 13 and 17, followed by kids aged between seven and 12, with 26,851 cases. As for children aged five and six years old, there were 8,237 cases recorded, while tots below four years old made up the third highest place in the list, with 19,851 cases.
Given the number, Noor Hisham urged all parties, especially parents and guardians of young children to play a part in protecting those with low immunity levels.
Besides adhering to the standard operating procedures set, he also urged eligible adults to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
There have been a total of 595,374 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 3,096 deaths from the disease, in the country, until yesterday.
Globally, more than 172 million people have been infected by the coronavirus, and over 3.71 million people have died from it.
Source: Bernama, KKM
Photo source: Sinar Harian