Almost three in every four cases of coronavirus infection in Uttar Pradesh are from active working population in the age group of 21-60 years but the mortality is high among people above 60 years of age as per data released by the Uttar Pradesh government.
The Health department released the age-group survey of coronavirus positive cases found across the state on Wednesday.
Principal Secretary (Health) Amrit Mohan Prasad said that 17 per cent of the total 727 coronavirus cases in the state were in the 0-20 years age bracket, 46.5 per cent cases in 21-40 years bracket, 26 per cent in 41-60 years age group and 10.5 per cent in 60 years and more age group.
“In other words, 72.5 per cent of the cases are in the 21-60 year age group, which incidentally is the productive age group. This comes out to be around three in every four cases of coronavirus infection reported in UP,” Prasad said.
This trend, though uniform in India, is different from findings in other countries where people above 60 years of age are more affected. Therefore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked people to take care of the elderly.
Prasad said that mortality was however very high among people of 60 years and above.
“The elderly have other diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer etc. and when they get affected by coronavirus, it becomes fatal. Therefore, it is requested that extra care should be taken of the elderly people,” he said.
Experts have come with an explanation behind high coronavirus incidence among people of productive age.
Head of Department of Respiratory Medicine, King George’s Medical University, Dr Suryakant, said that people in 21-40 year age group were always on the road. “They are ready to go out and they also act as attendants of ailing people. Thus, there is high chance of them getting infected,” he said.
Dr Suryakant said that figures about members who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi in mid-March was not available. “I believe the number of people in the 21-40 age group could be high in the Jamaat too,” he said.
Dr SK. Pandey of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences said that the primary reason could be that maximum persons in productive age group travelled internationally.
“A person who is carrying virus and screened at the airport may escape undetected as symptoms appear mostly a week after infection. Secondly, we have not intensified testing and therefore there is every chance that these people go undetected,” he said.
From Wednesday, the government has started pool testing wherein five samples each in hotspots in Agra would be mixed and tested in KGMU. Testing has also been intensified as now over 2,000 samples are being tested daily.