Almost half (45.7%) of the people who contracted coronavirus in Uruguay in the last month were 29 or younger, as shown by the epidemiological update published monthly by the Ministry of Public Health and processed The Observer.
This record is divided into two factors: on the one hand, the sustained growth of the age group under nine years old -which multiplied, uninterruptedly, its weekly cases by 15, going from 408 at the end of 2021 to 6,085 in the third week of 2022- and, on the other, the abrupt rise of group of children and adolescents between 10 and 19 years old, which, in just two weeks, was infected almost eight times mores, going from 1,313 infections at the end of December to 9,975 in the second half of January, which then dropped to 8,483. In turn, the band from 20 to 29 went from 1,947 weekly positives at the end of 2021 to almost 13,000 in the third week of January.
The population group from zero to nine years old – mostly unvaccinated – accounted for 7.1% of the total infected in the last month (179,026), while the group from 10 to 19 reached 14.2%. If young people between the ages of 20 and 29 are also included in this registry, then the figure grows to almost half of the confirmed cases (45.7%).
However, the picture changed completely in the third week of January: The report shows that in that period those over 30 years of age (40,347 cases) were infected almost twice as much as young people under 29 (27,473 cases).
As the ages advance, the report reflects an increase in the mortality rate. With a strong vaccination shield, which reaches 82% of the Uruguayan population with the first dose, 76% with the second, and 51.8% with the third, lethality (179.1 per 100,000 inhabitants) continues at historical lowest” and is similar to that registered in March 2021, the survey indicates. While more men continue to die, more women are now infected.
Despite the slight decrease in infections at the end of January, the first three weeks of the month swept record highs in the number of accumulated weekly cases, the ministry notes.
In the last month, although the number of cases requiring hospitalization increased, lThe proportion of assets entered into CTI was the lowest since October 2020, with 0.16% of the total as of the date of the report.
Cerro Largo, Flores, Maldonado, Montevideo, Rocha, San José and Tacuarembó were the departments that presented the highest cumulative incidence of the virus.
