The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the Covid-19 epidemic caused by the emerging coronavirus affects young people and young adults and has claimed the lives of victims among children and adolescents.
"The belief that" Covid-19 affects only the elderly "is wrong, as the facts show," the director general of the organization in the Europe region, Hans Kluge, told a weekly electronic press conference in Copenhagen.
Klugh stressed that "age is not the only risk factor for a serious injury." Critical cases were recorded among adolescents and young adults, many of whom required intensive care, while a number of them died, the official indicated.
In Europe, the youngest victim was a twelve-year-old girl who died in Belgium. A six-week-old baby died after being infected with the virus in the United States. According to the World Health Organization, 10 to 15% of people under 50 suffer from moderate to serious injury.
However, Kluge said that "elderly people in good health do not face a major risk," noting that "people over the age of 100 (...) were hospitalized with Covid-19 and recovered completely."