WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Apurba Sarkar, Saikat Majumder, Banti Das, Dr. Gourab Chakraborty and *Dr. Tapan Majumdar

ABSTRACT

Introduction: COVID-19 is a global crisis caused by SARS-COV-2. The virus was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China; in December 2019. The incubation period of the virus is 2 to 14 days, average around 6.5 days in children and 5.4 days in adults. Asymptomatic infections are common in children. Method: ICMR recognized Viral Research & Diagnostic Laboratory of Agartala Government Medical College for conducting RT-PCR test for screening and confirmation of SARS-COV-2. Subsequently, tests were undertaken from 5th March 2020. All the tests were performed as per the testing strategies of ICMR on Strategy for COVID-19 testing in India. Extraction of viral RNA was done as per the manufacturer protocol of QIAGEN for QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit. The screening was done by targeting the SARS-CoV-2-specific ‘E gene’. Then the Confirmation was carried out by targeting the ‘RdRp gene’ and ‘ORF-1b’. Result: During this study period out of 100995 samples tested 6571 (7%) were children. 98% (6447) were negative and 2% (124) were positive for SARS-COV-2 by RT-PCR. In positive children, 62% (n=77) was male and 38% (n=47) was female. The most affected age group was 6 to 10 years (33%). The median age was 8 (0-14) years. 81% (n=101) was asymptomatic and 19% (n=23) was symptomatic. Symptoms were similar as Influenza like Symptoms. Conclusion: This study shows that 2% of the tested children were positive for SARS-COV-2, majority of them had positive household contact. 81% were asymptomatic and 19% had moderate symptoms without any mortality. COVID-19 is going to be added as another viral agent of the respiratory panel for future diagnosis and research.

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