Hundreds of thousands of children could die this year as a result of the global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations (UN) warned, calling for urgent action to protect the young generation amid the crisis.
A new report issued by the UN on Thursday showed that 1.5 billion children and young people are affected by school closures worldwide, while nearly 369 million children who rely on school meals no longer have the access to this daily dose of nutrition.
At the same time, the UN warned about the need to secure children’s safety at home, noting that as the coronavirus crisis deepens family stress-levels are rising, making children both victims and witnesses of domestic violence.
‘‘With schools closed, an important early warning mechanism is missing,’’ UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, warning over a potential increase in teenage pregnancies as more girls could drop out of school due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The UN chief also stated that increased and unstructured time online could make children victims of harmful and violent content, cyberbullying and online sexual exploitation, and highlighted the important role governments, parents and social media companies have in ensuring child protection online.
While children infected with the COVID-19 appear to have ‘‘far milder’’ symptoms of the illness compared to adults, the report found that the economic hardship families face as a result of the global recession could lead to hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths in 2020.
Such a scenario would reverse the progress made over the last two to three years in reducing infant mortality, it noted.
The UN added that an estimated 42 million to 66 million children could fall into extreme poverty in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, calling on governments to protect the vulnerable.
‘‘Governments are urged to take steps to counter the unintended effects on children by rolling out or expanding social assistance to families, securing food supply chains and local food markets, and prioritizing the continuity of services such as schooling, nutrition programmes, and maternal and newborn care,’’ it stated.
Source: New Europe
