The increase in hospitalizations and deaths of young people across the Americas due to Covid-19 currently keeps the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) on alert. This happens rapidly and ‘adults of all ages, including young people, are becoming seriously ill and many of them are dying,’ PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne warned.
Between December 2020 and March 2021, mortality rates among those younger than 39 in Brazil doubled and it quadrupled for people in the 40-50 range, the PAHO director pointed out.
In Brazil, hospitalizations were highest among those in their 40s, Etienne said.
She pointed out that the hospitalization rates of people under 39 rose by more than 70 percent in Chile during the past few months.
Etienne recalled that for much of the pandemic, health institutions were filled with elderly Covid-19 patients, many of whom had pre-existing conditions that made them more susceptible to a severe form of the disease.
