86% Covid-19 death due to comorbidity; youth are at risk

The Union Health Ministry on Monday said that 76 per cent males constitute positive coronavirus cases in the country, which indicate men are more susceptible to contract the deadly infection, and 86 per cent deaths occur due to comorbidity and young people with comorbidity are at high risk from the coronavirus infection.

According to Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Health Ministry, 47 per cent positive cases are in people below the age of 40 years, 34 per cent cases in the age group of 40 to 60 years and 19 per cent cases are above 60 years of age, while people above 60 years account for 63 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths.

Agarwal added, "86% per cent death cases have exhibited comorbidity related to diabetes, chronic kidney issues, hypertension and heart related problems. Although 19 per cent confirmed cases have been reported among the elderly, since 63 per cent deaths have been observed among them, elderly people form a high risk population. Further, though 37 per cent deaths are reported from people below 60 years, approximately 86 per cent of deaths amongst people with comorbidities indicate that young people with comorbidities are also at high risk for Covid-19."

Out of the total positive cases, men comprise 76 per cent and women 24 per cent.

He emphasised that elders should be protected and every youth has to be careful that they maintain sufficient social distance to not pass infection to anyone in the family, particularly the elderly.

"We urge social distancing in the long term and all the dos and don'ts followed by everybody in the family," added Agarwal.

Clarifying the queries connected with community transmission in the country, the health ministry said if at all there is any community transmission, it will alert the people.

"Localised community transmission implies that increase in cases was observed in a particular area. Our action plan is that we should not reach stage 3 (which is the community transmission stage)," added Agarwal.

The official also clarified that whenever a drastic increase is observed in the number of cases in an area, the ministry adopts a containment action plan. "All the districts have been informed to have an action plan on Covid-19, if there are cases or no cases", added Agarwal.

As many as 693 new positive Covid-19 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours in India, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,067. IANS