![]() The very notion that “COVID-19 only affects older people” is factually wrong. Some of the reasons older people are greatly impacted by COVID-19 include the physiological changes associated with ageing, decreased immune function and multimorbidity which expose older adults to be more susceptible to the infection itself and make them more likely to suffer severely from COVID-19 disease and more serious complications.īut age is not the only risk for severe disease. First, we should emphasize that while older people are at highest risk from Covid-19, all of us, at all ages, need to act in solidarity to prevent the further community spread of the virus Today I have three key messages for your regarding COVID-19, and the need to protect, care and support older populations. We also know from reports that 8 out of 10 deaths are occurring in individuals with at least one underlying co-morbidity, in particular those with cardiovascular diseases/hypertension and diabetes, but also with a range of other chronic underlying conditions. ![]() More than 50% of all deaths were people aged 80 years or older. We know that over 95% of these deaths occurred in those older than 60 years. The countries most affected by the pandemic are among them. This is a very important observation for the European Region: of the top 30 countries with the largest percentage of older people, all but one (Japan) are our Member States in Europe. Older adults are at a significantly increased risk of severe disease following infection from COVID-19. Sadly, some patients will pass away: so far 30,098 persons are reported to have died with COVID-19 in the European Region, with 90% of the deaths occurring in the mainly affected countries of Italy, Spain and France. However, we know that a minority go on to suffer more severe disease, with 10% of cases requiring intensive care unit admission. ![]() The majority of those who are infected with COVID-19 have a self-limiting infection and do recover. It will be launched today on our website accompanied by a press release at 12:00 midday CEST. This is a new platform which WHO/Europe has developed and will run with the support of the European Union and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and will be updated regularly to inform and support policy decisions at various stages of the pandemic. Here at the WHO Regional Office for Europe we are stepping up to capture what is happening to support countries to organize their thinking and planning to share the information and evidence with policy makers through the COVID-19 Health Systems Response Monitor. There is a huge amount of data on COVID-19, but nowhere that Member States can find out what health systems are actually doing and whether it’s working. France and Germany also have a considerable number of reported cases at 67,366 and 52,128 respectively, with other countries close behind.Ĭlearly there are huge differences between countries, the burden of COVID-19 on societies and economies and the measures being implemented across the European Region. Italy- with over 105,792 reported cases and Spain with 94,417 cases have now surpassed China. Many countries, particularly in the Western part of the Region are now seeing widespread community transmission. Europe together with North America is now the epi-centre of the pandemic. Since I last spoke one week ago, the number of laboratory confirmed cases reported across the Region has doubled to 464,859 cases. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe Copenhagen, 2 April 2020
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