New Delhi: Most of India’s novel coronavirus patients are in the productive age group, with half of all cases found among those under the age of 40, the health ministry has said.
Revealing the age profile of coronavirus cases in a press briefing on Saturday, Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said nine per cent of cases are between 0-20 years, 42 per cent are between 21 to 40 years, 33 per cent are between 41 to 60 years while 17 per cent are above 60 years of age.
This means 75 per cent of India’s coronavirus cases are in the working age group of 21 to 60 years of age which may prove to be an important factor for survival rates in India as 95 per cent of deaths in Europe were in those above the age of 60, as informed by the World Health Organization’s European Office Thursday.
There are 58 patients who are critical and most are in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, said Aggarwal.
India reported the highest number of new cases Friday, with 601 cases and 24 deaths, taking the tally to 2902 confirmed cases and 68 deaths, he informed.
Most of the deaths were individuals with comorbidities like kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes, “Hence high risk patients with comorbidities must follow the government guidelines,” said Aggarwal.
Despite the spike in numbers, India’s rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases is lower compared to other countries, but given that it is an infectious disease this rate can change, he added.
Also read: 445 Covid-19 cases in Delhi: CM Kejriwal says situation under control, no community spread
A third of all cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat
About 1023 of India’s Covid-19 confirmed cases can be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, informed Lav Aggarwal which he said was “an event we couldn’t understand or manage.”
The religious congregation held around mid-March at Delhi’s Nizamuddin with participation of foreign nationals account for 35 per cent of India’s total cases.
Tablighi Jamaat members have been detected from 17 states and union territories including Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telanaga, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Gujarat.
About 22,000 of the Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts have been quarantined in various states, informed Punya Salila Srivastava, joint secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.
After initially asking healthy individuals to refrain from wearing masks, the union health ministry released guidelines on homemade face masks on Saturday.
The guidelines by the office of principal scientific advisor, first released on 30 March, state that masks lower the chances of coronavirus entering the respiratory system through droplets still in the air from an infected person.
“Our guidance remains the same, the earlier strategy was for medical masks,” said Aggarwal. These guidelines are focused on increasing personal hygiene among those living in densely populated places, he said.
Also read: Tablighi Jamaat members should be killed by firing bullets: MNS chief Raj Thackeray