Hyderabad (Telangana): More than 65 per cent of those who tested positive for COVID-19 in Telangana are aged between 21 and 50 years, reveal the official statistics.
Health officials said 65.7 of those tested positive are in the age group of 21-50, dispelling the claim that only those above 60 years and below 10 are most vulnerable to the virus.
Those in the age group of 21-40 comprise 47.1 per cent of the tally while those aged between 41 and 50 comprise 18.6 per cent. Among all nine age groups, the 31-40 years group is the worst affected, accounting for 25 per cent of the cases.
The detailed media bulletin, released by the state health authorities on the direction of the Telangana High Court, shows 14.7 of those who tested positive are in the age group of 51 to 60 years.
The statistics also show that 10.9 per cent of those affected by the virus are above 60 years. The percentage for children below 10 years stands at 3.4 while those between 11 and 20 years are 5.3 per cent.
Taking note of the statistics, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the government to give wide publicity to the fact that young too were vulnerable to COVID-19.
Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy told Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar that people should be told that youth too are vulnerable to the virus to dispel the myth that only children below 10 years and elderly above 60 years are vulnerable.
The Chief Secretary was directed to ensure that the advisory in the bulletin is changed so that youngsters would be more cautious and take precautions to stay safe.
However, the bulletin released on Wednesday continued to list children and elderly as the only vulnerable age groups. "Children less than 10 yrs of age and elders above 60 yrs of age are to avoid going outdoors. They are to stay indoors," says the bulletin.
The court, which expressed its dissatisfaction with the government on several occasions in the past for not implementing its orders, took note of the bulletin released in the new format on Tuesday and said it was asking the authorities to publish such kind of critical data so that it helps the society track the trend of the deadly virus.
The bulletin also shows that more men than women are testing positive. Men account for 65.6 per cent of all positive cases while the remaining are women.
An analysis of the deaths shows that 53.87 per cent of those succumbed had co-morbidities. The remaining 46.13 per cent died of COVID-19.
According to Wednesday's bulletin, 1,764 new positive cases were reported, taking the state's tally to 58,906.
Twelve more persons succumbed to the virus, pushing the death toll to 492. The case fatality rate in the state remained 0.84 per cent against a national average of 2.26 per cent.
IANS report
