New Delhi, April 16 (IANS): Twelve students of a government school here were admitted to the city's Hindu Rao hospital on Thursday after they were administered deworming medication as part of the government's deworming campaign.

The children, students of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in north Delhi's Vijay Nagar, include three who are below 12 years of age while nine others are above 12 years.

"The children below 12 have been admitted to the paediatric department and those above 12 have been admitted to the medicine ward," hospital authorities said.

With regard to the issue, Delhi's Health Minister Satyendra Jain told a press conference that "there is nothing to panic about the situation. Uneasiness and dizziness are part of the medication process, specially for children who suffer from severe worm infestation".

He also said that the Delhi government had set up a proper protocol for any kind of problem that arose during the deworming programme in schools.

"I have advised school authorities to admit them to hospitals and not keep them back in school, if anything happens to the children after being given the deworming medicine," he said.

The Delhi government on Wednesday launched a statewide campaign to deworm children in schools and anganwadis.

A total of 3,032 schools and 11,500 anganwadis were part of the process on Thursday.

A mop-up day has also been scheduled for April 20 to cover all those children who were absent on the deworming day.

World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that parasitic worms are a significant public health concern for India, with 241 million children aged between one and 14 at risk.

The programme is in its third mass deworming round in the capital city since 2012. The current round targets 3.7 million children.