(Geneva) Young people “are not invincible” in the face of COVID – 17 and in some countries they are too numerous to “lower the guard ”, causing an increase in the transmission of the virus, warned Thursday the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Posted on 30 July 2020 to 13 h 39
France Media Agency
“We have said it and we say it again: young people can be infected, young people can die, and young people can transmit the virus”, hammered the D r Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press conference.
“It seems that the rebounds of cases in some countries are partly due to young people who let their guard down during the summer in the northern hemisphere”, he stressed, urging them to “take the same precautions as others to protect themselves from the virus and to protect others ”.
“Young people should be at the forefront of change” in the new social attitudes induced by the pandemic – physical distancing, hand washing, wearing a mask when distancing is impossible… – insisted the D r Tedros.
Night clubs, in particular, are “amplifiers of the transmission of the virus,” added WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove.
In addition, even if the coronavirus in its severe forms mainly affects elderly people or people already suffering from other pathologies, the disease, even in its moderate forms, “can affect many organs. We don’t know what the long term impact is, ”warned WHO health emergencies manager Dr Michael Ryan.
COVID – 17 “causes inflammation of the lungs, but it has also been found that this inflammatory process can extend to the cardiovascular system , in the blood, the heart, in other organs… ”, he said.
“Do not take ill-considered risks. The risks at present cannot be clearly quantified, “he insisted.
Outbreaks of coronavirus cases have been observed in European countries where young people on vacation go to bars or organize parties on the beaches.
In Canada, people under 39 constitute a clear majority of new cases of COVID – 17, warned the country's health authorities last weekend.
The pandemic has left nearly 670 00 dead worldwide and more than 13 million cases have been diagnosed since the end of December.
