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With the start of the second wave of COVID in Nova Scotia, the picture of who gets sick in this province has changed.
“It focuses on that demographic between the ages of 18 and 35,” Dr Robert Strang, the province’s health director, said in a briefing on Thursday.
“This is precisely the nature of this virus when you get it at a demographic age where social activity is an important part of how they live.”
All age groups had cases during the first wave, but attention has focused on outbreaks among the elderly as COVID-19 spread from the community to staff and residents in the province’s nursing homes.
The first wave
Just over half of Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 cases from March to late September involved people of primary working age, ages 20 to 59.
A further 21% are in the 60 to 79 age group and 17% are over 80. About 10% were 19 and under.
Overall, 61% of cases were women and 39% were men.
The outbreak at the Northwood Long-Term Care Facility in Halifax alone accounted for 345 cases among staff and residents. Minor outbreaks have been reported in at least seven other long-term care facilities or aged care facilities across the province.
The largest number of long-term care residents tend to be women, as women have a longer life expectancy than men. Long-term care staff are also more likely to be female.
Aging and long-term care experts said this is one of the reasons the first wave showed an uneven gender divide that was weighted towards women.
The second wave
At this point in Nova Scotia’s second wave – which Strang says began in early October – the age and gender split looks very different.
Between October 1 and Strang’s November 24 briefing, 71% of COVID-19 cases fell in the 20-39 age group. At the bottom of that group were people between 40 and 59 years old, which represented 13% of cases.
10% of cases were between 0 and 19 years old and 7% between 60 and 79 years.
No cases had been recorded in the age group 80 years and older as of November 24.
The gender division has also changed, with 55% of cases in the second wave being male and 45% female.
What will happen
The second wave is not over and it is still possible that older age groups or nursing homes may be hit hard again, which is why the province has set up isolation units in six nursing homes and long-term hospitals. .
Younger adults are less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19, although it can happen.
“If you look at the vast majority of our positive cases in the past few weeks, they have been young adults,” Strang said.
“A lot of social life, going to work … as we test contacts, there have been some who have been asymptomatic. But there have also been many who have very mild symptoms.”
And this can be problematic.
Strang said the very fact that young people exhibit mild symptoms – or none – makes them excellent transmitters of a virus that won’t go away anytime soon.
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