WHO says people in 20s, 30s, 40s increasingly driving pandemic

The spread of the coronavirus is being increasingly driven by people aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s and many are not aware that they have been infected, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for the Western Pacific said on Tuesday.

“This increases the risk of spillovers to the more vulnerable: the elderly, the sick people in long-term care, people who live in densely populated areas and underserved areas,” Takeshi Kasai told a virtual briefing.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 770,429 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December.

At least 21,719,870 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 13,399,500 are now considered recovered.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 170,052 deaths from 5,404,115 cases. At least 1,833,067 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 107,852 deaths from 3,340,197 cases, Mexico with 56,757 deaths from 522,162 cases, India with 50,921 deaths from 2,647,663 cases, and United Kingdom with 41,366 deaths from 318,484 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 86 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Peru (80), Spain 61, United Kingdom 61, and Italy 59.