Amid the rise of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, health experts on Saturday, 8 January, warned that this variant may lead children to witness more problems as compared to the Delta variant.

"Children's respiratory tract is smaller than adults and this new variant is majorly affecting upper respiratory tract among infected patients," Animesh Arya, Senior Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, New Delhi told IANS.

Tushar Tayal, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Gurugram said that as compared to previous variants to date this variant is affecting more children in numbers.

"We should be more prepared for our children's safety this time. The symptoms present in children are not much different from adults, which includes, cough and cold, fever, etc," Tayal told IANS.

According to data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an average of 672 children were admitted to hospitals every day with COVID-19 during the last week ending Sunday — the highest such number of the pandemic.

In India, the Union Health Ministry on Saturday morning, 8 January, said that with 64 fresh Omicron infections being detected in the last 24 hours, the national tally of this highly transmissible COVID-19 variant has mounted to 3,071.

As per the ministry, till now, the infection has spread to 27 states and UTs. However, Maharashtra and Delhi continue to be the worst-hit states.

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT)