08/18/2020 - 16:22
- Clarín.com
- World
The spread of the coronavirus in the Asia-Pacific region is increasingly being driven by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who do not know they are infected because they have no symptoms or have mild symptoms, the World Organization of Health (WHO).
The concern is added to the alerts that several experts in Europe have launched in recent weeks, who see how young people are the most infected in a number of outbreaks in Spain, Italy, France or Great Britain.
The regional director of the WHO Asia and the Pacific region, Takeshi Kasai, warned that, because many of the young people are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms of Covid-19, they transmit the virus to others without knowing it.
"This increases the risk of spreading to the most vulnerable, the elderly, the sick in long-term care, people living in densely populated urban areas, and under-served rural areas. We must redouble our efforts to prevent the virus from spreading. vulnerable communities are displaced, "the expert said at a press conference.
The Western Pacific region, which encompasses 27 countries in Asia and the Pacific, has so far confirmed more than 400,000 coronavirus infections and nearly 9,300 deaths, according to the WHO. Those deaths represent 2.3 percent of all cases in the region.
WHO further noted that Asia-Pacific countries have entered "a new phase of the pandemic" in which governments are adopting new tactics and strategies that minimize large-scale disruptions to people's lives and economies. , while responding to Covid-19.
"Many are now detecting outbreaks earlier and responding to them more quickly with more targeted interventions and an agile approach that brings societies and economies back to health at the same time," Kasai concluded.
Health workers take coronavirus samples from students at a school in Handan, northern China. Photo: AFP
In Europe, with the arrival of summer and the end of quarantines, outbreaks are being registered in several countries, especially Spain, Italy and France. And a large part of the infections now occur in younger patients, in many cases due to nightlife, parties and beach encounters without respecting social distancing or prevention measures such as the use of chinstraps.
Days ago, the Italian epidemiologist Pierluigi Lopaldo, head of the health task force of the Puglia region, in the south of the country, warned that the increase in youth infection has lowered the average age of patients from 61 to 40 years . And if this trend continues, one part "will become seriously ill."
In Puglia this weekend there were five patients between 20 and 30 years in critical conditions in intensive care.
In other countries there has also been a decrease in the average age of patients. But even though those under 40 are less vulnerable than those over 60, the risk is that they can minimize the disease and infect many other people.
And the concern also extends to America, now the main focus of the pandemic, especially in the United States, Mexico and Brazil.
Source: DPA
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