When will children in India get inoculated against COVID-19? It could be as early as August 2021, if the health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is to be believed.He said this at a recent BJP parliamentary party meeting.There are concerns about the impact of an impending third wave on children.A vaccine would enable the reopening of schools and the resumption of outdoor activities. A timeline for September had been given earlier according to data from clinical trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. 

Last year, when the lockdown was announced nationwide, I felt very excited at the thought of not going to school anymore and getting a break from studies. I had thought that this would go on for a couple of days and once the situation becomes better, everything would be back to normal. But then, the days turned into months, and I never expected it to go on for a whole year!

Attend classes, study, eat, sleep, then rinse and repeat. Sounds peaceful, doesn’t it? It sure did to me, at least in the first few weeks of lockdown. Though now, instead of the noisy interruptions by many loud students, my classes are punctuated by silence.

‘All’s well that ends well.’
My lockdown experience is the exact opposite of this commonly used quote from the famous play by William Shakespeare.

My first reaction:
When I got to know about the lockdown in the entire country, I got excited thinking that I will get more time to spend with my family, more time for TV, and no more school! Most of my friends felt the same way.

We all like pandas, don’t we? Those cute furry little creatures with big shiny eyes who do nothing all day but roll on the grass and munch on bamboos!

But unfortunately, pandas live mainly in temperate forests, high in the mountains of southwest China, or in the zoos in which your parents will never take you because they’re six hours away from your house. I mean, why go to the zoo when you can solve 15 math problems from RD Sharma in those six hours and actually be ‘productive’ in that time!?

I blinked in confusion, “Psychics, yet again!” As I kept jotting down notes in my copy, I started another episode of daydreams in my mind. My friend messaged me in between asking, "Hey, which page is Ma'am teaching?" I frowned.

"Maybe 39 or 40," I replied.

I missed my friend because, in school, we never talked about which chapter we were being taught or what books we should bring...

We are reminded repeatedly to wash hands, wear a mask, maintain distance, and improve immunity. But an important factor that can fight against corona is, the food we eat. Though, we experimented with our culinary skills during the lockdown—from cakes and firangi cuisines to Dalgona coffee—we need to 'Be Wise' and 'Choose Wise'.

Avoid white bread, maida, pasta, sweets, chocolates, processed and canned foods, carbonated drinks, canned juices, and fried food to keep your lungs healthy. Keep fighting corona!

What is the effect of corona and the lockdown on the mental state of children?

This pandemic has been a rollercoaster ride for all those who have lived it. For children, this has been something that neither they nor their parents had ever known. All spheres of their lives are affected. The major pillar of scaffolds in a child’s life include— his/her parents (or caregivers), immediate environment, school, the self, and social sphere.

Major instability in each of these has taken a huge toll on our children's mental health. There are rising concerns of temper tantrums, anxiety, existential queries, confusion and hopelessness, rendering them unable to figure a way out...

Hello, Everyone!

I was excited to go to school as our new session was going to start soon. But, but, but… just two weeks before it was about to reopen, we were banned from going outside.

LOCKDOWN—Yes! This is the word which has a lot of power. Are you thinking that I am praising it? No, never. This innocent word locked us inside our homes for months and months and drove, we the students, online with no end in sight.

Attending a government school in a remote village, all my students required greater attention. They have a rural background and pursue farming apart from studies. In the beginning, I contacted three of my 8th-class students through video calls on WhatsApp. Pawan, Adarsh and Bhavesh almost broke down over the call when they saw me live after months. Then, I made several WhatsApp groups like ‘Science 6th’, ‘Science 10th’, etc. and contacted them daily.

When a free bird is trapped in a cage, it writhes in pain and pines. My uncle had a parrot who used to roam around the house even though it had a cage to live in. That parrot is the representation of our lives before the pandemic. We used to live in our houses just the same but we had freedom too. However, during these two years, it feels as if our gates are shut with a huge lock called‘Covid-19’.

The first case of Green fungus infection in a COVID-19 patient was reported in India on June 15, 2021. The infected patient, a 34-year-old man in Indore, was shifted to Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital by air ambulance. He was diagnosed with a fungal infection called Aspergillosis this week. The patient had battled COVID-19 for two months with a severe lung infection, the doctors said.

Aspergillosis is caused by Aspergillus, a common mold fungus that lives indoors and outdoors. 

A highly-polluting factory, the Sterlite Copper, shuts down after years of inspiring community effort by the suffering villagers of Thoothukudi.

When the entire world is suffering from the pandemic and lockdowns, one tiny village in our country is certainly thrilled. This place is Thoothukudi in the Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu where a highly-polluting factory is locked down after years of inspiring community effort by its villagers. This factory, called the Sterlite Copper, is a subsidiary of the Vedanta Limited...

A native Amazonian tribe, the Waorani, successfully defends its sacred homeland from destruction posed by an oil conglomerate.

The Amazon is the world’s largest and densest rainforest, truly priced as the ‘lungs of the world’. This jungle conquers over nine nationalities and houses a bewildering variety of plants and animal species seen nowhere else on the globe. All such detail might be already well-known to you along with the news about its constant destruction, which is also much lamented by everyone. However, off late, there has been some hustle within the woods.

A multi-billion dollar company had earmarked half a million acres of forestland for oil drilling in the Amazon. This would have required installation of some mining machinery and huge logging activities in turn. All of this would have fetched oil for the company but after causing humongous loss to the surrounding biodiversity, the cost of which is inestimable. 

The spread of Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) has raised concerns among pediatricians. Children manifest this syndrome which usually involves multiple organs about four to six weeks after a COVID-19 infection.

Health experts say that MIS-C happens due to an antigen produced by the body to fight the COVID-19 infection. The lower number of COVID-19 tests conducted on children is the reason for the late detection of post-Covid complications among them.