COVID 19

Risk of young people spreading the virus to the elderly, says disease specialist

Risk of young people spreading the virus to the elderly, says disease specialist

By Kenneth Fox

There is an increased risk of young people spreading COVID-19 to the elderly, according to an infectious disease specialist

It comes as yesterday it was reported that the median age of the 40 new cases of COVID-19 was 33.

No new deaths were confirmed, meaning the death toll remains at 1,764.

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Professor Sam McConkey from the Royal College of Surgeon is warning we cannot relax about COVID-19, seeing as yesterday saw the highest number of cases since mid-June

He says the danger is the virus could end up spreading within the community.

"This is again is very similar to what we had in February and March before we had large numbers of elderly people getting it, who sadly passed away from it.

"This is the grumbling of a virus among young healthy people who are often minimally symptomatic."

Opening up

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He says the risk is that if young people meet with their parents and grandparents, we see could the virus flair up among the eldery again.

Meanwhile, Dr Mike Ryan, from the World Health Organisation, says many countries have seen a rise in cases when lockdown has ended:

"It was always likely that when societies opened up and mobility increased we were going to see the disease return. Whether it is through sporadic cases or clusters.

"The real judge and test of a country's capacity and resolves is how quickly and how comprehensively each country responds to the signals that the disease is back."

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