On April 9, Wang Huaqing, chief expert of the immunization program of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with the media that for the elderly who have not been vaccinated and those with underlying diseases, the Omicron variant can cause severe illness and death. concern.
Wang Huaqing said that according to the information provided by the WHO, during the epidemic of the Omicron variant, the global death toll peaked again, and some countries or regions even reached a historical peak. The death toll in the United States exceeded 15,000 for 5 weeks.
He pointed out that according to the information provided by the Hong Kong Department of Health, when the Omicron variant in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was prevalent, the case fatality rate of the unvaccinated population reached 2.87%, and the case fatality rate of the unvaccinated elderly people over 80 years old was as high as 15.68%. .
In addition, according to a study in Hong Kong, the risk of death among people aged ≥ 60 was 252 times higher than that of people aged < 30 in this Omicron outbreak in Hong Kong.
(Reporter Liu Chao produced Wu Rui)
Responsible editor: [Luo Pan]