Panaji, May 26 (IANS): Preparing SOPs for Covid management among children, creating medical infrastructure to handle children infected with Covid, as well as roping in paediatricians for evolving treatment protocol, the Goa government is readying for the third Covid wave, which experts have claimed could impact children.

Sawant, whose government had formed a special task force to deal with the third wave of infections last week, also said, that a strategy was being worked out to deal with it.

"We need an SOP for management of Covid-19 in children. There should be a common SOP in coordination with AIIMS. The training will be imparted to all doctors, nurses, and has been started and also for counsellors," Sawant said.

"It is important that parents should be given counselling. There is also a need to strictly implement and monitor home isolation to curb disease transmission," Sawant said.

The Goa government has come under severe criticism, with the opposition accusing it of being caught off guard vis a vis the second wave of infections, which saw the tiny state top the infection positivity rate in the country. The state also witnessed scores of deaths on account of low oxygen earlier this month.

Sawant said that preparation for the third wave of Covid-19 would also involve raising the requisite infrastructure related to paediatric care. Sawant said that the Goa government would be commissioning a 10-bedded neonatal intensive care unit at the Goa Medical College, along with a similar five-bedded facility in another government hospital.

"PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit) beds to be increased from eight to 14 in the existing PICU in GMC and a new 60 bedded PICU -- 30 bedded each, in the super-speciality block. We have also taken a decision that at any time 20 beds in an existing ICU, can be converted into a paediatric ICU," Sawant said.

"We have also thought of roping in paediatricians from the private sector. There are around 120 paediatricians across the state," Sawant said.