Younger age groups now dying from COVID – Health Minister

The coronavirus mortality pattern in Guyana has taken a new trajectory, affecting younger age groups within the population.
Addressing the new trend was Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony during Thursday’s COVID-19 update. He explained that data gathered in recent weeks shows that individuals from lower age groups are falling victim to the novel disease.
Previously, only older people or those with comorbidities were at risk.
“What we have noticed over the last couple of weeks is that we have seen a change in the mortality patterns, because we’re seeing persons who are between 50 and 40, we have seen a few cases in that age category. We have had a few cases in the 40-to-30 age category, and we have had about three cases in the 30-to-20 age category. So, we have to be mindful that this is no longer a situation where it’s just older people. We’re seeing different ages, and this is a trend that is also being observed globally,” he shared.

The Minister outlined that this trend could be due to the fact that a large percentage of the 60-and- older subset has already been vaccinated. With this indication, he said it is important for Guyanese to ensure that they take both doses of the vaccine.
“That pattern is changing, because what we are noticing now is that 63 per cent of our over-60 population has now been vaccinated, at least with the first dose of the vaccine. We encourage all those who got their first dose to make sure that they get their second dose of the vaccine, because unless you get both doses, you’re not going to be fully protected.”
The vaccines offer protection against death from the virus, and will prevent people from developing the worst form of the virus. Dr Anthony pointed out that once positive cases reach the hospitalisation stage, there will be some deaths.
He detailed, “Once you have hospitalisation, a percentage of those persons would end up in the ICU and would die. We keep repeating that. I don’t know how many persons have been paying attention to it, but we keep repeating it.
“Unfortunately, some persons would get very sick when they’re in the hospital, and they would die. Initially, when we start monitoring this, we noticed that older people and people with comorbidities were more at risk.”
Just last week, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Carissa F Etienne, highlighted that more younger persons were being hospitalised across the Americas.
“Adults of all ages, including young people, are becoming seriously ill. Many of them are dying…In Brazil, mortality rates have doubled among those younger than 39, quadrupled among those in their 40s, and tripled for those in their 50s between December 2020 and March 2021,” she had informed.
She said hospitalisation rates of people under 39 years old rose by more than 70 percent in Chile during the past few months.
“If infections continue to rise at this rate, we expect that, over the next three months, countries across our region will need to maintain and even increase their ICU bed capacity further,” she warned.
The Director also shared that countries must continue public health measures – social distancing, wearing masks, and avoiding gatherings in closed spaces. Communication campaigns also should be launched to remind younger people that they need to protect themselves. (G12)