World Health Organization
The World Health Organisation, WHO on Thursday reiterated its warning that children can also be affected by Coronavirus, COVID-19.
The head of the Organization in Europe, Hans Kluge who issued the warning during an online briefing from Copenhagen said age is not the only risk for severe disease.
According to him, the notion that COVID-19 only affects older people is factually wrong, he said “Severe cases have been reported among teens and young adults, with some requiring intensive care and several deaths.
He further sighted instances of young people that have died as a result of the pandemic.
“In Europe, the youngest victim is a 12-year-old girl who died in Belgium, in the United States, a six-week-old baby has died from the virus”.
However, Kluge noted that people who age healthily are less at risk”. “There are reports of people over the age of 100 who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 and have now since made a complete recovery.”
The Organization said, there were 464,859 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30,098 deaths in the 53 countries that make up its region.
Some 80 percent of those who died from the virus had at least one underlying illness, in particular cardiovascular disease and diabetes, Kluge said it was of the utmost importance “for every age group” to respect hygiene guidelines.