Tue 18 August 2020:
The spread of the novel coronavirus is being increasingly driven by people aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are unaware they are infected because they have no or mild symptoms, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Because many people from this age range are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms of COVID-19, they unknowingly pass on the virus to others, Takeshi Kasai, WHO’s regional director for the Western Pacific said on Tuesday.
“This increases the risk of spillovers to the most vulnerable, the elderly, the sick in long-term care, people who live in densely populated urban areas and underserved rural areas.”
An analysis of six million cases with detailed information reported to the WHO between February 24 and July 12 showed an increase in the proportion of children and young people infected.
Data verified by Al Jazeera, the proportion of affected children aged zero to four grew from 0.3 percent to 2.2 percent, those aged five to 14 years grew from 0.8 percent to 4.6 percent, while those aged 15 to 24 grew from 4.5 to 15 percent of the total cases analysed.
“While we see differences across regions, we do see a consistent shift towards more younger people being reported among COVID-19 cases,” the WHO told Al Jazeera.
The warning comes after police in England reported responding to a surge in unlicensed music events in recent weeks during warm weather, breaching coronavirus regulations on large gatherings.
Global cases are now just shy of 22 million and expected to pass the milestone within a matter of days, at most.
The US has by far the highest number of cases with nearly 5.5 million. Brazil and India follow with 3.4 million and 2.7 million respectively.
No other country has more than a million total confirmed cases yet.
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