Younger population infected in Omicron-fuelled third Covid wave, says govt citing data
India Today
The rapid spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in India infected a comparatively younger population with an average age of 44 years, data collected by the Indian Council of Medical Research shows.
The rapid spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in India infected a comparatively younger population with an average age of 44 years, reflects hospital data collated by the government’s top medical body.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the average age of the section of the population infected was 55 years in the previous waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. This average age of hospitalisation dropped to 44 during the third wave.
"There were two time periods which we studied. One was November 15 to December 15, which was presumed to be dominated by the strain of Delta, and the other was December 16 to January 17, when the presumed dominant strain was Omicron," ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava said.
As many as 1,520 hospitalised individuals were analysed, and their mean age during this third surge was about 44 years, a slightly younger population, Dr Bhargava said.
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Surprisingly, these individuals were comparatively young but had “pretty high” co-morbidities.
“About 46 per cent had co-morbidities, these are the people who are younger...but nearly half of them had some co-morbidities and their symptoms were much less,” Dr Bhargava added.
