Younger adults less immune to Covid-19 health risks than thought, US agency’s study suggests

Younger people may not be as invulnerable to the effects of Covid-19 as previously thought, according to data released on Monday by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, as a top American health official and US President Donald Trump urged the country’s millennials to heed social distancing guidelines.

The CDC’s study of 4,226 coronavirus infections recorded in the US from February 12 to Monday showed that about a fifth of 705 people aged 20-44 were hospitalised, with 2-4 per cent requiring intensive care.

Still, the US data matched findings from China – the early epicentre of the global pandemic – showing that the risk of severe complications and death arising from a Covid-19 infection rose with age. Those aged over 65 and with pre-existing conditions were the most vulnerable group, according to the CDC study. Thirty-one per cent of all infections recorded in the study occurred in people over 65.

While epidemiologists have emphasised that all age groups face risks, much of the public and media attention from various studies focus on the higher fatality and transmission rates among those over 65 years of age.

This age group accounted for 45 per cent of hospitalisations, 53 per cent of intensive care unit admissions and 80 per cent of deaths recorded during the period of the data. Nine people aged 20-64 died of the disease, with no fatalities recorded among infected people aged 19 and below.

“Clinicians who care for adults should be aware that Covid-19 can result in severe disease among persons of all ages,” the CDC said in its report. The federal health agency said its data was preliminary and incomplete for some “key characteristics of interest, including hospitalisation status”.