WHO warns that young people are driving spread of COVID-19
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that young people are becoming the primary drivers of the spread of the novel coronavirus in many countries — a worrisome trend experts fear may grow in the United States as many colleges and schools begin to reopen.
Many nations in Asia, which had previously pushed infections to enviably low rates, have experienced surges in recent weeks at the same time the age of those infected skewed younger.
“People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread,” Takeshi Kasai, the WHO’s Western Pacific regional director, said at a news briefing on Tuesday. “The epidemic is changing.”
More than half of confirmed infections in Australia and the Philippines in recent weeks have been in people younger than 40, WHO officials said, a stark contrast to predominantly older patients from the previous months. In Japan, 65% of recent infections occurred in people below age 40.
Because symptoms are often milder in the young, Dr. Kasai noted, many are unaware they are infected.
“This increases the risk of spillovers to the most vulnerable: the elderly, the sick, people in long-term care, people who live in densely populated urban areas and underserved rural areas,” Dr. Kasai said.
The global health agency’s warnings come amid intense debate in the United States about whether to bring students back to classrooms. So far, at least 168,000 people in the United States have died of COVID19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to a Washington Post analysis.
For colleges and universities, where students in their late teens and 20s live in tight quarters and mingle at off-campus gatherings, the problem has proved particularly vexing.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill confidently reopened campus last week with social distancing measures, including leaving dorms partially vacant and blocking off chairs in lecture halls so students had to sit farther apart. But abruptly, on Monday, the school decided to close again when 177 students tested positive for the virus, as outbreaks sprang up in residence halls and a fraternity house.
Other colleges are reporting similarly concerning numbers.
On Tuesday, the University of Notre Dame announced it will halt in-person teaching for at least two weeks after reporting 147 people had tested positive since Aug. 3. Michigan State University also said Tuesday it will shift to remote learning for the fall semester after 187 people in surrounding East Lansing were linked to an outbreak at a college bar in July.
At least 189 people at the University of Kentucky have tested positive for the virus since Aug. 3, according to the university’s website, representing a little more than 1% of those tested.
But public universities in several states are forging ahead with plans to fully reopen campuses, including those in Georgia and Florida, which have among the highest infection rates in the nation.
While unwilling to close those campuses, governors in Texas and Florida in recent weeks have instituted limits on bars and alcohol consumption, citing the skyrocketing number of young people who are contracting the virus. The actions came after videos of packed bars and crowded house parties with no partygoers wearing masks put several college towns on high alert.
An analysis by Davidson College in North Carolina that examined two public institutions in every state found that 23 planned some kind of in-person instruction. Experts say they are doing so in the face of stark warning signs of a potentially hazardous fall term.