Young more vulnerable!

An age-profiling analysis of coronavirus positive cases, carried out by the Union Health Ministry, the details of which were released on Saturday said that 44% of COVID-19 cases in the country are in the age between 21 and 40 years. This means people in the young and the middle age group are more susceptible to the infection. Breaking down the age profile of the coronavirus positive cases in the country, a Health Ministry official also said that 9% cases are between 0 and 20 years, 42% cases are between 21 and 40 years, 33% cases are between 41 and 60 years, and 17% cases are above 60 years. This comes as a warning to the young people, especially when the general perception that people had gathered on the basis of various reports was that it were the elderly and sick who were mre vulnerable. It is true that elderly and people with comorbid conditions are vulnerable to the infection, as also are people having cardiac and kidney issues. The Union Health Ministry analysis incidentally came one day after World Health Organization (WHO) had said that more young people are becoming critically ill and dying due to COVID-19. WHO officials had on Friday said that it is a mistake to believe that the virus only severely impacts older people and those with underlying conditions. Additionally, they had said that more young people are becoming critically ill and dying from the coronavirus that’s now spread to almost every country across the world. According to Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, more and more younger individuals are experiencing the severe disease across the globe. According to her, data from a number of countries across Europe have shown that more people of younger age have died; some of those individuals have had underlying conditions, but some have not. As Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies programme has said, “We collectively have been living in a world where we’ve tried to convince ourselves that this disease is mild in young people and more severe in older people, and that’s where the problem is.”