Thousands of children across Florida are reportedly suffering from the lingering side effects of the novel coronavirus post healing from it. Or so, they thought.
The issue of Long-Covid remains stagnant, especially if one encountered the deadly Delta variant, which largely impacted a lot of school children across Florida.
As these pupils make their way back to schools, many school management teams and parents are stuck, not knowing how to navigate this journey.
The long-haul Covid-19 in children poses challenges to academic activities, sporting performances, and social activities, requiring them to be on their best game to deliver remarkable work.
What is Long-Covid, and what causes it?
Long Covid can be explained as the lingering symptoms that an individual who had Covid-19 continues to experience months after their initial infection.
This is said to happen, mostly in cases where people had robust immune responses to the coronavirus, and this also happens to those who had mild and severe symptoms. It varies from person to person.
Because scientists say the novel coronavirus makes the patient's immune systems to go into a massive overdrive, dismantling cells and tissues, the healing process tends to be relatively slow.
According to BBC News, surveys have identified tens and even hundreds of other symptoms that can possibly be experienced - from mild to severe cases.
The severity of symptoms varies, but many have been left unable to perform tasks like showering, grocery shopping and remembering words.
Some symptoms that people are still struggling with months after Covid-19:
- High chances of your Covid-test results remaining positive for months, post initial infection.
- The excessive fatigue and terrible exhaustion continue to pester a lot of people.
- There are issues with breathing, coupled with abnormal heart rates when doing minor things like taking stairs.
- There are other cases of memory fog and difficulty with concentration.
- One's senses remain gone for a while, referring to taste buds and changes in smell.
- One can also experience hallucinations, lack of sleep or unexpected cases of insomnia.
- Some people experience hearing changes that also affect their vision.
- Gastrointestinal and bladder problems have also been picked.
- There may be changes to the menstrual cycle and skin condition.
Most youngsters across Florida were met with a shock of their lives when they caught the highly contagious Delta variant.
The infection shocked many young people because, generally, they're the youngest and the healthiest. It is even worse when they don't drink alcohol or even smoke.
What are your chances if you are vaccinated?
The latest data from Science Direct has shown that vaccines do offer a reduced risk of severe sickness, hospitalisation or even death.
Each vaccine offers different percentile protection, but in preventing acute Covid-19 symptoms, they work alike.
These vaccines are also said to be helpful when it comes to reducing the likeliness of hospitalisation and death rates that Florida kept on seeing.
Another thing to note is that the more Covid-19 continues to mutate, the further the strain it causes on vaccines - hence experts encourage more to get vaccinated to run the virus out of hosts to infect.
What should Florida parents do to assist their children in dealing with Long-Covid?
Last month saw Florida register the third-highest child deaths and infections in the United States due to the Delta variant.
The Covid-19 child mortality rate across the entire state rose to 140% from the end of July to early September due to the Delta variant.
The increase in infections among children was attributed to kids' return to school when the schooling period began.
During August, few days after schools had opened, thousands of pupils across the state were forced to quarantine following a spike in positive covid cases.
Several schools in the state have had to shut down to allow principals, teachers and staff to take steps to help manage and prevent the spread of the delta variant.
However, towards the end of the month, cases started slowing down among children, and that was a leeway for some schools to resume classes in-person while others kept them online.
Most children across Florida who had Covid-19 are bound to be still dealing with long-term side effects, which will affect a lot of children.
What do you think parents can do to assist their children while they battle Long-Covid? What are your thoughts? Do you have any kid in your home that is dealing with Long-Covid? How is this affecting their sporting or academic activities? Let me know in the comments. And if you think more people should read this article, share it on social media.
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