People aged 21-40 account for 51% of total cases since pandemic outbreak

Around 51% of the 177,190 people who were infected with the coronavirus infection since the outbreak of the pandemic till May 20 were aged between 21 and 40 years, according to the district health department data

Around 51% of the 177,190 people who were infected with the coronavirus infection since the outbreak of the pandemic till May 20 were aged between 21 and 40 years, according to the district health department data.

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Based on the cumulative case count until May 20, till when the data of age-wise breakup was available, over 49,075 (27.7%) people in the 31-40 year age group contracted the coronavirus, making them the highest infected population group, followed by people in the 21-30 year age group that accounted for 41,158 (23.2%) of the total cases.

On Wednesday, the overall tally reached 180,115, with 83 new cases detected. Of these, 1,073 are currently active.

According to the data till May 20, 27,846 people (15.7%) in their 40s and 18,333 (10.3%) in their 50s also tested positive, making them the next highest impacted age groups.

Dr Rajesh Kumar, former head of community medicine department and school of public health, PGIMER-Chandigarh, said, “Be it the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020 or the second wave this year, it has been seen across the country that people of 21-40 years are the most affected. First, they are more in number compared to the elderly population. Second, they are highly mobile, moving from one place to another for various kinds of work. It makes them more susceptible to contracting the infection.”

Over 12, 515 children (7%) in 11-20 years and 6,624 (3.7%) in the 0-10 age group contracted the virus, but no death has been reported in these age groups. Likewise, in the older age groups, 13, 353 people aged between 61 and 70 years tested positive for the coronavirus infection, but their mortality was higher than other age groups, as was the case in the 71-80 years age group that accounted for 6,277 (3.5%) of the cases.

Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer of Gurugram, said, “Despite 21-40 age group being the most affected population, death rate in the age groups has been lesser compared to the older population. They contribute roughly about 10% to overall deaths. In terms of morbidity and mortality, people between 41 and 70 are the most vulnerable. Among those in their 60s, the death rate has been almost 26% until May 24 and 23% among those between 71 and 80 years.”

The data shows that almost 58.6% of the infected population were male, while two transgenders tested positive in the last 14 months of the pandemic.

83 new cases detected

The daily case count on Wednesday declined to 83, the lowest since March 16. The test positivity rate, the proportion of positives out of the sample tested, also decreased to 1.63%, while the recovery rate reached 98.7%.

On April 30, according to a statement issued by the district administration on Wednesday, when the lockdown was imposed for two weeks, the positivity rate was almost 34.9%. Cases were doubling every 23 days, while the recovery rate fell to 69.76%. It took over a month of lockdown and extensive testing in large outbreak areas to bring the numbers down.

Daily mortality is still high, according to the district health bulletin. On Wednesday, nine people died due to Covid-19, taking the death toll to 836. Among the 1,073 active cases, at least 143 are hospitalised, while 926 are home isolated and four are in district covid care centres.