Under-50s told: You can’t be complacent – it can kill you too

ONE third of coronavirus patients admitted to NHS intensive care are under 60, official data shows.

Younger people were yesterday warned they are ‘not immortal’ as doctors spoke of their horror at seeing victims in their 30s and 40s battling for their lives.

They warned that ‘some of the sickest people’ currently in hospital are young and fit, with no underlying health conditions.

On Sunday, an 18-year-old from Warwickshire became the youngest person in Britain to die from the virus.

An audit of the first 196 patients to be admitted to NHS critical care units reveals the vast majority were previously independent and healthy.

The patients had an average age of 64, but 37 per cent were under the age of 60, including 17 per cent under the age of 50.

Yesterday’s report, by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, analysed all admissions to critical care units in the UK up until midnight last Thursday.

Only 18 of the 196 patients had severe underlying health conditions – such as heart conditions or lung disease. And nearly nine in ten of the patients were living independently before they were struck down.

The report showed that 71 per cent of patients were male. Data from other countries, including Italy, also suggests men are hit hardest.

London is bearing the brunt of the crisis, with 56 per cent of intensive care cases.

The data reinforces calls for young people who ‘think they are invincible’ to take the virus seriously. Labour MP Dr Rosena AllinKhan, a practising A&E doctor at St George’s Hospital in London, said the number of cases was growing very quickly.

She said: ‘The most startling news seems to be that some of the sickest patients that we have had in this department recently have been young. We have patients who are in their 30s and early 40s, who are previously fit and well, fighting for their lives.’

Dr Allin-Khan told BBC Radio 4: ‘It’s going to get harder and harder in the coming weeks. We will be having to make life and death decisions. Making impossible choices between who gets what may be the last remaining ventilator. The public have to make this easier for us.’

Conservative MP Dr Liam Fox added that some young people were acting as if ‘they are immortal’. He warned: ‘Young people may not die in the same numbers, but they may well be hospitalised. If they are they will take up capacity in the healthcare system.’

Areema Nasreen, a ‘fit and healthy’ 36-year-old nurse, is fighting for her life in the hospital where she works after developing Covid-19 symptoms 11 days ago.

Yesterday, the mayor of Italy’s hardest-hit city said he had flown his two young daughters, who are studying in the UK, back to Italy because he believed they would be safer there.

Giorgio Gori, 59, mayor of Bergamo, told Sky News: ‘I think they are more secure here than in England. I don’t understand why the

Government didn’t decide in time to protect their citizens.’

Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, said: ‘It’s important that we don’t give the impression that every single person who is young and healthy is just going to breeze through this.’

In Panama, a 13-year-old girl has become one of the youngest people to die from coronavirus, and just the third in her country. The teenager, who had a heart condition, died at a paediatric hospital.