Death rate high among elderly virus victims

From NHK World

February 29th 2020

Joint research by a team of specialists from around the world has found that one out of every 5 patients aged 80 or over who contracted the new coronavirus in China has died.

The team analyzed data of 55,929 people who became infected in China by February 20th.

Two-thousand-one-hundred-fourteen of them died, which translates to a rate of 3.8%.

The rate was higher among older people, and it was 21.9 percent for those aged 80 or older.

The rate was also higher among people who had other diseases and who developed complications.

Thirteen-point-two percent of those who had cardiovascular diseases, and 9.2 percent of those who had diabetes, died.

The death rate in Wuhan is 5.8 percent, while in other regions, it is only 0.7%.

Only a few children have contracted the virus, and their symptoms are relatively mild.

Only 2.4 percent of those who contracted the virus were 19 years old or younger.