Private paediatricians in Mumbai and neighbouring areas have been noticing an increase in respiratory illnesses among children. Dr Ankit Gupta, a paediatric critical care specialist at Wockhardt Hospital at Mira Road, said that the hospital's paediatric intensive care unit is seeing a high number of cases involving children under the age of three, especially those under six months old, who have been admitted with viral pneumonia, a lung infection caused by viruses such as influenza, which infect the lungs and lead to inflammation.

In the past month alone, over 100 children with various symptoms have visited the OPD of Wockhardt at Mira Road. Dr Pramod Padwal, head of the women and child department at Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation, said, “We do not have a separate age-wise column for the data we receive from private hospitals, so we can't confirm any increase. At least in municipal corporation facilities, we have not noticed any trend in viral pneumonitis (inflammation of the lungs caused by all viruses, not just those that cause pneumonia).”