An analysis conducted by the Union health ministry’s Integrated Surveillance Programme has shown that 62.5% of coronavirus patients in hospitals are below the age of 40, Hindustan Times reported. The report also revealed that 53% of fatalities in hospitals are of people over the age of 60 and 88% of those aged 45 and above.
The results of the analysis of around 2 lakh Covid-19 patients are in line with both Indian and international trends, where the number of the infected is higher among the younger population even though most of the fatalities are found to be in older age groups.
“The pattern that is visible in India is not really different from the data that is coming from experts globally, that the infection is relatively less common among children, and mostly affects the adult population,” a health ministry official said. “Elderly people, and those with comorbidities, are at a higher risk of developing a severe form of the disease.” The study is the first in India to show the age-wise distribution of coronavirus patients.
The data showed that 9% of Covid-19 patients in hospitals were over 60 years of age, 25.84% belonged to 21-30 age group and 22.48% were aged between 31 and 40 years. At least 70% of the fatalities have been found in patients with medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, liver, cardiac or kidney disease.
“Our data from various hospitals shows that most of the patients who have succumbed had comorbidities, with many suffering from at least two chronic health conditions,” the official said. “This category of people needs to be extra careful; this is a crucial part of government’s community surveillance efforts, especially those living in containment zones.” The officer was referring to about 40 lakh people who are under community surveillance, including adults with comorbidities in containment zones.
Further, experts believe that the number of infections could rise, with less severe cases and deaths, as the virus has high transmissibility. Doctor NK Mehra, an immunology and immunogenetics expert at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said that the low death rate in the country may be attributed to the fact that immunity of Indians was modulated to battle the virus better than others such as Europeans and Americans.
“The young population getting infected could also be movement-related as we have managed to quarantine to a large extent, our vulnerable population,” Mehra said. “The changing weather, however, needs extra caution as respiratory illnesses are known to get worse with the drop in temperature.”
The study also revealed that about 4.4% of Covid-19 patients in hospitals were children below 10 years. Child specialists say that the infection is not uncommon in children but the cases are generally mild.
Doctor Sheffali Gulati, chief of the child neurology division at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said that they have coronavirus positive children with neurological symptoms of serious nature but added that the number of such children was very small.
India’s coronavirus count rose to 66,85,083 on Tuesday with 61,267 new cases. The toll rose by 884 to 1,03,569. So far, more than 55 lakh people have recovered from the infection. The death rate is 1.55%.
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