New Delhi: The ongoing calamitous second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic has hit younger people more as compared to the first wave which was less severe and deadly. So, what is the reason behind this shift? The ICMR chief reasons that it’s because the younger people have begun going out. ICMR Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava further said that it could also be due to some variants of SARs-COV-2 prevalent in the country that are afflicting younger people more.
“We have found that younger people are getting slightly more involved because suddenly they have gone out and there are variants also prevalent in the nation which may be affecting them as well,” ICMR Chief Dr. Balram Bhargava was quoted as saying in various media reports.
Bhargava added that the comparison of data during the first and the second wave of COVID-19 has shown that there is not much age difference. People above the age of 40 are more vulnerable to adverse outcomes.
The Centre had, in March, pointed out that that people under the age group of 30 years comprised 31 per cent of people affected in the first wave of 2020 while the percentage climbed to 32 in 2021.
An early trend of decline in daily new COVID-19 cases and deaths has been noted in the country even as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, and Punjab are among the 16 states still showing a continued increase in daily cases, the government said on Tuesday.
According to the government, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana were among the 18 states and union territories showing continued plateauing or decrease in daily new COVID-19 cases.