Young make up bulk of cases: BMC
Bhubaneswar: Youths between the age of 19 and 45 constitute 57% of the total Covid-19 positive cases in the capital city. This goes to show that a vast majority of the infected ones between July 1 and August 9 are those youths who are going out to work, says a BMC study.
The age break-up data of the Covid-infected people revealed that only a minuscule of the positives cases (20) are those of people above 80 years of age. The health experts view the two contrasts in terms of demography and habits. Of the 3,597 positive cases till August 9, altogether 2083 are youths. Their recovery rate is also impressive with 1,249 getting discharged from the hospitals. Of the infected youths, 834 are active cases.
Ashok Mohapatra, vice-chancellor, SOA University and former director of AIIMS (Bhubaneswar), said, “From the demographic standpoint, of the total population in the city, 50% are youths. Apart from the demographic interpretation, there is one more reason and that is the adherence to the norms of maintaining a social distance and wearing of masks is less among youths resulting in exposure and more cases. If this trend continues, the city will report less fatality as they can recover faster than the rest unless there they have other health complications.”
He added that the city hasn’t reported any deaths so far between the age group of 19 and 45.
Being a capital city, Bhubaneswar has a diverse population. It boasts of a hardcore mobile working-class, floating youth population, which comes to the city for different assignments, static working class who have to go to office every day and return and then the youth labour force engaged in factories, construction sites, drivers of taxi aggregators and food suppliers.
Noted city-based doctor Manoj Sahu said if there are five members in a family and one among them is youth, it is obvious that he will go out to buy essentials at this juncture. Apart from the regular working-class youths, who are exposed because of the nature of their work, including household as they have to go to the market to buy the essential items. Secondly, youths have a tendency to sit in groups and indulge in idle talk. In such a situation, where there are more asymptomatic cases, youngsters are caught unawares if they come in contact with a positive person from among their friends, Sahu reasoned.
Of the 20 deaths till August 9, 12 are between the ages of 55 and 80 and above 80. Three are between the ages of 46 and 55, the BMC data revealed. Till August 9, there are 140 positive cases of people between 60 and 80 years, and 20 cases of those above 80 years. Of the total 3,597 Covid positive cases, 1,193 are local infection, which account for 33% of the cases.