While thousands of children are dying each day as a result of various health complications during the coronavirus pandemic, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is urging health care services around the world to avoid such a sharp increase in child mortality by treating diseases other than those related to COVID-19, the UNICEF regional director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2020) While thousands of children are dying each day as a result of various health complications during the coronavirus pandemic, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is urging health care services around the world to avoid such a sharp increase in child mortality by treating diseases other than those related to COVID-19, the UNICEF regional director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, told Sputnik.
"An additional 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as the COVID-19 pandemic weakens health systems and disrupts routine services... in the 118 low- and middle-income countries 1.2 million children under five could die in just six months due to restrictions in routine health service coverage levels ... This would be the first increase in a global number of children dying before their fifth birthday in decades," Khan said.
According to the UNICEF regional director, the most vulnerable regions are in Africa and South America.
"UNICEF is advocating for the continued provision of life-saving interventions because its reduction can result in a large number of additional children and maternal deaths from preventable, treatable conditions," Khan said.
Another dire issue that must be addressed immediately, the official noted, is that millions of children worldwide could face poverty by this year's end as a result of a months-long pandemic.
"What we've seen in just a few months - COVID-19 has upended the lives of hundreds of millions of children around the world, including in Europe, Central Asia and many other places. In UNICEF we think that children are the hidden victims of the pandemic," Khan said.
A recent report by the Save the Children Fund and UNICEF, suggests that the economic fallout of COVID-19 could push up to 86 million more children into household poverty by the end of 2020.
"That would be a 15% increase globally. In the region of Europe and Central Asia, we would likely see the most significant increase with up to 44% across the region," the UNICEF regional director added.
Almost 77 percent of minors under the age of 18 - 1.8 billion children - living in 132 countries, have in one way or another been affected by the COVID-19 movement restrictions.
Khan went on to cite the interrupted education process as one of the consequences of the pandemic threatening children in particular.
"Where we've seen the biggest impact is children's access to education. In most countries globally schools had to close down. UNICEF estimates that closure has impacted 91% of world students, which is more than 1.5 billion girls and boys. That includes more than 50 million students in Europe and Central Asia affected by school closures," she noted.
Mental healthcare and psychosocial assistance for children and their parents is also an important aspect to work on, Khan said.
"We continue to work with governments for child-friendly policies and programs so that at least most vulnerable households are not as hardly impacted," the regional director noted.
According to Khan, there are three important response measures that can be taken to manage the given crisis.
"One is that there is some cash transfer to poor households... The second thing is that we really need to make sure that these are not just short-term measures, but longer-term measures. ... The third thing to really make sure ... that there is very closed look at public expenditure and budget and poor households, including with high-dependency ratio with women and children are supported more, and not only with cash transfer," Khan said.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in early spring. To date, more than 6.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, resulting in over 380,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
