WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO BE WORST HIT

T he coronavirus doesn’t discriminate but around a fifth of those infected with it have a higher risk of becoming seriously ill.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put the case fatality rate at 3.4pc worldwide, although this varies between countries, from 2.3pc in China to 5pc in Italy. Projections by Irish public health officials suggest that between 20pc and 40pc of Ireland’s 4.8 million population could get the coronavirus.

Most will get mild symptoms, and some won’t even know they are carrying the virus. Older people are no more likely to catch the virus than anyone else but if they do catch it they are at greater risk, particularly those over the age of 80.

In China, 14.8pc of people with the virus who were over the age of 80 died, compared with 8pc of people in their 70s, according to data collected by WHO.

Age is not the only risk factor.

People with diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory disease and cancer also have a greater risk of dying if they contract the virus. The same data from China found that 13.2pc of Covid-19 patients who had underlying heart disease died, and 7.6pc of people with cancer and 8pc of those with respiratory disease.

The data also showed a higher risk to men — 4.8pc of men died compared with 2.8pc of women. Experts have pointed out that this could be because more men than women smoke.

The Department of Health in Ireland says that smokers are at greater risk of getting the infection, and at greater risk of it lasting longer and becoming more serious than for non-smokers. It has also posted advice on its website for pregnant women, even though the numbers of reported cases of pregnant women with the virus is low.

But the stark advice from the Department of Health is that the virus is new, and we still don’t know how it affects expectant mothers and their babies.

Expectant mothers who test positive may have to give birth in an isolation room, with only one other person present outside of their medical team, the advice says. Once the baby is born, the mother must consider her options: “One option may be to arrange for someone else to care for the baby while you wait for coronavirus to pass. This is to protect your baby from catching the virus,” the health advice says. If the mother chooses to care for her baby, there are risks. In that case, mother and baby will have to be isolated in a single room. The baby will be in an enclosed incubator. Visitors will be restricted and need to wear protective masks. When holding, bathing or breastfeeding the baby, the mother is advised to wear a longsleeved gown and surgical mask. Mothers are encouraged to breastfeed, depending on medical advice, but they must wash their hands before touching their baby.

Parents will be relieved to know that children seem to escape the worst symptoms of the coronavirus. Data collected from the World Health Organisation’s fact-finding mission to China found that teenagers and children accounted for 2.4pc of all reported Covid-19 cases. When the virus was detected in children, it was usually through contact tracing, not because they presented with medical symptoms. But experts believe they are key vectors — hence the urgency in shutting down schools and creches.