Indian hospitals have plenty COVID hospital beds for children
Live MintIndian states have reserved more than double the COVID-19 hospital beds for children than recommended by federal experts out of fear of being under-prepared, government data shows, although doctors say not many youngsters have needed critical care yet. Since the last major infection wave in India starting April, the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in the eastern state of Bihar has kept aside 16 ICU beds for children affected by COVID-19. "None of the beds has been occupied since the beginning, but we have reserved them in case the third wave affects kids," Raj Kamal Choudhary, associate professor of medicine at the hospital with some 800 total beds, told Reuters. There is no centralised public data on how many children have needed hospital care due to COVID-19 in India, but countries such as the United States and Britain have seen a rise in hospitalisation in children due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.