Govt report shows 71% of Odisha’s Covid cases in 15-40 age group

BHUBANESWAR: Covid-19 has ripped through the young and the mobile of Odisha, with a significant 71 per cent of the patients being between the ages of 15 and 40.
Experts who study migration in the state said the virus had chiefly attacked young bachelors who live in the cig cities of India and work in the service and manufacturing sectors. They point out that this has been both an advantage and a disadvantage. While the young patients find themselves losing work days battling both Covid-19 and the economic distress caused by the pandemic, their hardier immunity has ensured that the state’s death toll remains a low nine.
Of the 3,250 infection cases recorded by the state, 2,307 people or 71% are between 15 and 40 years. Only 2.9 per cent infected people are between 0 and 14 years of age and 23 per cent are in the age group of 41 to 60.
The seasonal migrants below 40 years, the most productive age, were working in construction sectors as construction technicians, plumbers, masons and textile sectors as manual labourers in brick kilns as brick makers, in hospitality sectors as hotel boy, cook and attendants in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bengaluru and Telangana.
Umi Daniel, a researcher on migration trend said the single youths, who were working in cities in service and manufacturing sectors have been infected. “You won’t find more infection among the brick makers as they go mostly with families and stay away from the city. There may be few positive cases among them too, but that won’t as many as the ones, who go single and work inside cities,” he observed. He further said that the Odisha trend can be seen in case of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar also as mostly single youth go to work in service sectors.
Significantly, the state hasn’t recorded any death of Covid patient among the age between 15-40. All the mortality so far (9 deaths) are above 60 years of age. The above 60 age people account for just 2.9 per cent of total infected people.
Binod Patro, associate professor of community medicine at AIIMS, said in 15-40 age group, mortality will be less as they have no co-morbid condition. “In case of Odisha, the people of this age group (15-40) are mostly hard-working people, who have sound immunity. It is good that they recover with very few complications and later they become part of the herd immunity,” he explained.
Ramesh Behera, 32, who hails from Biripali in Balangir district had returned from Mumbai. He was working in a construction site as a mason but he didn’t get the virus although one from their group of 15 people was infected. “We were staying in the middle of the city in a house in Panvel. We don’t know how the man (34) travelled with us to Balangir district got the virus. He had no symptoms. He is fully recovered now and has returned home,” he told TOI.
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