A person with co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension or obesity is 15 times more likely to die of Covid-19 as compared to those without such ailemtns in India, and this risk increases further if he or she is above the age of 60.

As per the data gleaned from the existing mortality figures, nearly 17.9 per cent of people with co-morbidities have succumbed to the infection as compared to 1.2 per cent of those who are not suffering from any pre-existing chronic disease conditions, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a press conference here on Tuesday. Among those above 60, the share goes up to 24.6 per cent as against 4.8 per cent in the same age group without any co-morbidities.

Giving a gender-wise break-up of the deceased, he said nearly 70 per cent of those who have died so far are males. Similarly, 53 per cent of the deaths that occurred above the age of 60, 35 per cent between the ages of 45 and 60 and 10 per cent in the age band of 26-44.

“Young people in the country feel that they will not be affected by Covid-19 and even if they are infected they will recover fast. There is a need for the youth to get out of this misconception,” said Bhushan.

He also said that 10 States and Union Territories are responsible for 79 per cent of the current active case load, with Maharashtra (25.38 per cent share of the total active infections), Karnataka (13.81 per cent) and Kerala (11.26 per cent) leading the pack.

Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, also present at the meeting, said all previous influenza pandemics — including the 1918 one — have shown that these respiratory viruses thrive better during the winter, and hence there is a need for more cautious during the upcoming winter season. The chances of the pandemic flaring up are also high during the forthcoming festival season and further opening up of the economy.

Amit Khare, Information and Broadcasting Secretary, said the Centre together with State governments have further intensified the campaign to make sure people follow all Covid-19 appropriate behaviours such as wearing masks, handwashing and keeping sufficient distance from others. The new campaign — Jan Andolan — which will run for the next two months, will try to reach out to as many as 90 crore people through all possible modes, he said.

Ministers’ meet

Meanwhile, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday held a meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers, which was attended by among others Ministers of External Affairs and Urban Affairs and Housing S Jaishankar and Hardeep Puri, as well as the Minister of Civil Aviation.

Pointing out the pattern of influenza and other vector-borne diseases which peak during this season, Vardhan expressed concern that there was less reporting of influenza cases due to the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.

Latest numbers

On the other hand, with all major Covid-19-affected States reporting more recoveries than fresh cases, the number of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus fell to a little more than 55,000 in the last 24 hours. The number of people recovered from Covid-19, on the other hand, was close to 78,000 during the same period.

Currently, there are 8,38,729 active Covid-19 cases in the country.

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