Shillong, Jun 17 (IANS): Over 5,000 children under the age of 14 in Meghalaya have tested Covid-19 positive and 17 of them died, health officials said on Thursday.

Health officials said that since the beginning of the pandemic last year, 5,101 children up to the age of 14 tested positive but 4,344 of them have recovered and 17 succumbed. The remaining are under treatment in various hospitals.

Majority of the children were infected during the past one month.

"As many as 2,950 children have tested positive for Covid-19 since May 15, out of whom 2,821 have recovered, while 13 children died during the same period," an official said.

The latest child death was reported in East Garo Hills district where a four-year-old girl succumbed to the dreaded disease earlier this month.

Briefing the media, Health and Family Welfare Minister Alexander Laloo Hek said that not a single newborn baby was affected by infectious disease so far in the state.

He said that considering the rising infection of Covid-19 among the children, the government has decided to set up paediatric hospitals at Ganesh Das hospital in Shillong, Tura in West Garo Hills, and Jowai in West Jaintia Hills.

Claiming that the state government has sufficient numbers of Covid vaccines to continue the drive for another week, he said that the Centre has assured that it would supply more vaccines to the state after June 21.

The mountainous state so far registered 43,253 Covid positive cases and 38,032 have recovered and 758 have died. As on Thursday, the active cases stood at 4,464.

Meghalaya's fatality ratio is 1.75 per cent against the national average of 1.29 per cent.