No excess rate of young people testing positive for coronavirus, says NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul

Amid the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr VK Paul, member of NITI Aayog, on Monday said that there is no excess rate of young people being tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), news agency ANI reported.

“In [the] last pandemic wave, people under 30 years of age constituted 31% positive cases. It's 32% this year. People, between 30 and 45 years of age, testing positive remain [the] same at 21% as was last year. There is no excess rate of young people testing positive,” ANI quoted Dr Paul as saying. He also said that air-borne transmission of the disease is more prevalent than the surface borne transmission.

Dr Paul also said that the production of the Remdesivir drug, which currently has a high demand across the country, has been scaled up. “As for Remdesivir production, it had gone down but now from 26 lakh vials per month, it has been scaled up to 40 lakh vials per month while aiming for 76 lakh vials per month,” ANI quoted him as saying.

Many experts have said that more younger people are being infected during the second wave of the pandemic. Earlier on Sunday, chief of Genestrings Diagnostic Centre Gauri Agarwal said that “A lot of young people [are] testing Covid positive as compared to old people. Symptoms are different this time. Many are complaining of dry mouth, gastrointestinal issues, nausea, loose tools, red eyes and headache. Everyone doesn't complain of fever,” ANI reported.

On April 13, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal too had said that younger people are being infected with the disease in the national capital. “As per the data of last 10-15 days, 65 per cent of the patients are below 45 years of age. Your health and life are very important to us. So, I would like to appeal to the youth to step out of the house only when it is necessary and follow all Covid protocols strictly,” Kejriwal said.

Meanwhile, India reported 273,810 new infections on Monday, its highest in a 24-hour span so far. Data from the Union ministry of health and family welfare also showed that 1,619 people have succumbed to the disease on the day. With this, India’s cases tally reached 15,061,919 and the death toll climbed to 178,769.