ISLAMABAD: “Twenty four per cent of the confirmed cases in Pakistan so far are between 21 to 30 years of age,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said Wednesday.
This constitutes a majority of the cases. The pattern is unlike other countries where cases mostly comprise older people, he added.
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Pakistan has reported 1,022 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Contrary to the trend seen in China where cases of the contagion were highest among elderly people aged 65 years and above, Pakistan is showing a high rate of young adults falling victim to the disease.
Studies from the United States and Europe point out that young adults are falling extremely sick because of Covid-19. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, 705 of the first 2,500 coronavirus cases in the United States were aged 20-44 years.
A good news is that complications and ICU admissions among younger people were relatively lower as compared to the older age bracket, the centre underlined.
According to the Chief Epidemiologist at the National Institute of Health, Dr Rana Safdar, “The fact that Pakistan has a higher young population as compared to China and many other affected countries, explains why a majority of the confirmed cases in Pakistan constitute young adults.”
Dr Mirza also shared that number of local transmissions stood low at 7 per cent which meant that the other 93 per cent cases contracted the virus first hand from other countries during their travel. 64 per cent patients are men while 36 per cent are females.
He said that 5,225 people were currently quarantined in different facilities across Pakistan. Of these, 23% had tested positive, while all others were being sent back home with explicit instructions for protection. Dr Rana adding to this said that many suspected patients who were screened in quarantine facilities tested positive for the virus with little or no symptoms.
The special advisor said, “It is heartening to share that all 141 passengers on board a flight that arrived from Doha earlier this week were tested for COVID-19 and they proved negative.”
