COVID19 pandemic becoming child rights crisis as 6,000 children could die daily: UNICEF

The UN’s children agency has warned that an additional 6,000children could die daily from preventable causes over the next six months asthe COVID-19 pandemic weakens the health systems and disrupts routine services,the first time that the number of children dying before their fifth birthdaycould increase worldwide in decades.

As the coronavirus outbreak enters its fifth month, the UNChildren’s Fund (UNICEF) requested USD 1.6 billion to support its humanitarianresponse for children impacted by the pandemic.

   

The health crisis is quickly becoming a child rights crisis.And without urgent action, a further 6,000 under-fives could die each day, itsaid.

With a dramatic increase in the costs of supplies, shipmentand care, the agency appeal is up from a USD 651.6 million request made in lateMarch reflecting the devastating socioeconomic consequences of the disease andfamilies’ rising needs.

“Schools are closed, parents are out of work andfamilies are under strain,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore saidon Tuesday.

As we reimagine what a post-COVID world would look like,these funds will help us respond to the crisis, recover from its aftermath, andprotect children from its knock-on effects.

The estimate of the 6,000 additional deaths from preventablecauses over the next six months is based on an analysis by researchers from theJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published on Wednesday in theLancet Global Health Journal.

UNICEF said it was based on the worst of three scenariosanalysing 118 low and middle-income countries, estimating that an additional1.2 million deaths could occur in just the next six months, due to reductionsin routine health coverage, and an increase in so-called child wasting.

Around 56,700 more maternal deaths could also occur in justsix months, in addition to the 144,000 likely deaths across the same group ofcountries. The worst case scenario, of children dying before their fifthbirthdays, would represent an increase “for the first time in decades, Foresaid.

“We must not let mothers and children become collateraldamage in the fight against the virus. And we must not let decades of progresson reducing preventable child and maternal deaths, be lost, she said.

Access to essential services, like routine immunisation, hasalready been compromised for hundreds of millions of children and threatens asignificant increase in child mortality.

According to a UNICEF analysis, some 77 per cent of childrenunder the age of 18 worldwide are living in one of 132 countries with COVID-19movement restrictions.

The UN agency also spotlighted that the mental health andpsychosocial impact of restricted movement, school closures and subsequentisolation are likely to intensify already high levels of stress, especially forvulnerable youth.

At the same time, they maintained that children living underrestricted movement and socio-economic decline are in greater jeopardy ofviolence and neglect. Girls and women are at increased risk of sexual andgender-based violence.

The UNICEF pointed out that in many cases, refugee, migrantand internally displaced children are experiencing reduced access to protectionand services while being increasingly exposed to xenophobia and discrimination.

We have seen what the pandemic is doing to countries withdeveloped health systems and we are concerned about what it would do tocountries with weaker systems and fewer available resources, Fore said.

In countries suffering from humanitarian crises, UNICEF isworking to prevent transmission and mitigate the collateral impacts onchildren, women and vulnerable populations with a special focus on access tohealth, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and protection.

To date, the UN agency said it has received USD 215 millionto support its pandemic response, and additional funding will help build uponalready-achieved results.

Within its response, UNICEF has reached more than 1.67billion people with COVID-19 prevention messaging around hand washing and coughand sneeze hygiene; over 12 million with critical water, sanitation and hygienesupplies; and nearly 80 million children with distance or home-based learning.

The UN agency has also shipped to 52 countries, more than6.6 million gloves, 1.3 million surgical masks, 428,000 N95 respirators and34,500 COVID-19 diagnostic tests, among other items.

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