General News of Thursday, 19 November 2020

Source: 3news.com

Coronavirus strikes down 2,180 children who are below 18yrs – Report

Coronavirus cases are rising globally Coronavirus cases are rising globally

A report compiled by the Child Rights International (CRI) has noted that out of the 49,202 people who contracted the Covid-19 virus, 2,180 were children below 18 years.

Four deaths were recorded among children within the ages of 0-14 years, the report titled ‘COVID-19: State of children in Ghana’ further noted.

In an interview, the Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, said: “We did this because we realised that most of the countries that were hardly affected by Covid-19 also did an assessment on the state of children and how they would design the welfare system to accommodate the difficulty that children go through during the period so for us as an organisation we also looked at various issues that affected children during this period.”

He further suggested: “Moving forward, there must be a comprehensive nutritional plan under the school feeding programme in schools and the provision of regular information on nutritional values to the general public in order to maintain a strong immune system against COVID-19 in children.”

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) as at Tuesday, November 18, reported 81 new cases had pushed the cumulative number of cases to 50,457.

The number of discharges or recoveries had also increased to 48,710. The number of deaths has now reached 323.