Geneva: More than 95% of those who have died of coronavirus in Europe have been over 60 but young people should not be complacent, the head of the World Health Organization’s office in Europe said Thursday.
Dr Hans Kluge said age is not the only risk factor for getting a severe case of the virus that has put billions under lockdown and upended the world economy. “The very notion that COVID-19 only affects older people is factually wrong,” he said at an online news conference in Copenhagen. “Young people are not invincible.” Those comments echoed similar statements from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The U.N. health agency says 10% to 15% of people under 50 with the disease have moderate or severe cases.
“Severe cases of the disease have been seen in people in their teens or 20s, with many requiring intensive care and some unfortunately passing away,” Kluge said. He said recent statistics showed 30,098 people have been reported to have died in Europe, mostly in Italy, France and Spain.
“We know that over 95% of these deaths occurred in those older than 60 years,” he said, with more than half of the dead over 80. Kluge said more than 80% of those who died had at least one other chronic underlying condition like cardiovascular disease, hypertension or diabetes. “On a positive note, there are reports of people over the age of 100 who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 and have now — since — made a complete recovery,” he said.
Meanwhile, A six-week-old baby girl has died of coronavirus in the US state of Connecticut, Governor Ned Lamont said on Thursday, stressing that the death is a reminder that “nobody is safe with this virus” as the COVID-19 cases there crossed 3,500. A report in the Hartford Courant newspaper quoted officials as saying that the infant arrived at the hospital unresponsive and tested positive for the coronavirus post-mortem. “Probably the youngest person ever to die of COVID here in Connecticut. That baby was a less than seven weeks old. And it just is a reminder that nobody is safe with this virus,”
Confirmed coronavirus cases approached one million around the world on Thursday as Europe reeled from the pandemic and the US prepared for what President Donald Trump warned would be “horrific” days ahead. The virus claimed thousands more lives in its relentless march across the globe, including nearly 1,000 new deaths in Spain, despite more than half of the planet subjected to some form of lockdown. And it continued to wreak havoc on the global economy.
Since emerging in China in December, COVID-19 has infected more than 940,000 people — including at least 500,000 in Europe — and claimed more than 47,000 lives, according to a tally by AFP from official sources.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been a “near exponential growth” in new cases over the past five weeks and a doubling of deaths in the past week alone. Spain reporting its biggest monthly increase in jobless claims on record and the US expected to reveal more massive job losses. (Agencies)
