NEW DELHI: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that the COVID-19 pandemic is shadowed by another crisis as the mortality rate of children could go up by 6,000 daily. The child health body said, “[This is] quickly becoming a child rights crisis. And without urgent action, a further 6,000 under-fives could die each day.” The estimate increase in child death rate is based on the research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in the Lancet Global Health Journal.
The research also observed that maternal deaths could also increase by 56,700 in the coming six months and additional 144,000 deaths could also happen in women of the same age group for developing nations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has weakened the health systems and disrupted routine healthcare services. This will affect the more vulnerable group of society across the globe, for which urgent action is required, according to the Health body.