Three in four COVID-19 cases between 21 to 60 years age group in India

Every three in four cases that are infected with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in India belong to active working population between the age group of 21 to 60 years as on date.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that of these 75 per cent of the confirmed cases, the maximum cases up to 42 percent are between 21 to 40 years of age, while 33 percent are between 41 to 60 years of age.

“Further, nine percent cases belong to 0 - 20 years while 17 per cent belong to an age group of 60 plus individuals,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, MoHFW.

Age-wise data of first 2000 cases accessed from MoHFW and analysed by Businessline, further revealed that 53 children under the age of ten years had been infected, of which ten were less than one year old while six patients were one-year old.

Maximum cases, up to 75 per cent though were concentrated in 21 to 60 years of age group, with 433 cases (22 per cent) between 21 to 30, 422 cases (21 per cent) between 31 to 40, 367 cases (18 per cent) between 41 to 50 and 267 cases between 51 to 60 years (13 per cent).

Possible reasons

Primary reason for this is that maximum persons in the productive age group travel internationally. However, even as a person is screened at the airport, they may be carrying the virus but may escape undetected, as symptoms manifest mostly a week after infection. Also, young persons were not being quarantined and therefore not being tested in quarantine facilities.

“While elderly persons were being separately quarantined in government set-ups after international travel, because of inability to quarantine every international passenger, younger persons were being advised home quarantine,” said Dammu Ravi, Additional Secretary, Minister of External Affairs.

33 children between 11 to 15 years were infected, while older children and young adults between 16 to 20 years had recorded three times more cases at 90, the analysis further indicates.

In the older populations, up to 253 (12 per cent) cases were found in age group of 61 to 70 years, while 67 cases (3.3 per cent) were confirmed in 71 to 80 years, 13 (0.65 per cent) cases in 81 to 90 years and two cases (0.1 per cent) in 91 to 100 year age group.

Update as of April 4, 4 PM

According to data stated by Agarwal up to 2902 positive cases were confirmed up to 4 pm on April 4, and 601 cases had been added in the past 24 hours. Of 2902 cases, 183 had recovered and 68 persons had died.

Agarwal further stated that of all cases, 58 were in critical condition and were mostly from Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. “We are seeing deaths in high risk category and in elderly with those having co-morbid conditions like hypertension, kidney, cardiac ailments,” he said.

Tablighi Jamaat congregation

Agarwal also said that 1023 positive cases which were linked to Tablighi Jamaat congregation were linked back to 17 states and that 22000 persons linked to the Jamaat and their contacts had been quarantined. “Over 30 per cent cases are linked to Tabhlighi Jamaat, an event which we could not understand or manage,” said Agarwal.

Agarwal also said that home-made face covers or masks are advisable to be worn by healthy individuals to increase personal hygiene and should be used when frequenting densely populated areas.

A day after officials in a nation-wide survey said that sub-district and district hospitals were underprepared, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a joint meeting of COVID19 empowered groups and directed that there should be sufficient availability of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers including masks, gloves and ventilators.

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