Here Is Why The Youth Are ‘Mosquitoes’ Of Covid-19 In Kenya

Kenya has so far recorded 963 Covid-19 cases with 506 of them being the youth between ages 20 and 39 distributed across the country who are termed as super spreaders.

The high number of cases among the youth has raised concerns among Kenyans and as the Ministry of Health says, they are like mosquitoes, who just carry the deadly infection around while infecting others but they are not killed by it.

“This is where it (the rate of infection) is the largest, this is what we are calling ‘mosquito’ because a number of them carry it and they do not die from it,” said Health CS Mutahi Kagwe while giving an update on Covid-19 on Tuesday, May 19, 2020.

As new cases of Covid-19 are being confirmed daily, the majority of those who test positive are the youth. Most of the infected youth are asymptomatic but they pass the virus to the aged who are more vulnerable.

“While the youth are likely to get infected and spread the virus, the likelihood of [their] dying is minimal. However, for our elderly people, because of their pre-existing conditions, the number of deaths is high. We should take good care of elderly people.”

The ministry has established that the youth are also the ones flouting measures that have been put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country a situation that is worrying as the elderly are the ones at the edge of the cliff.

0ut of the 50 Covid-19 deaths, there is only one youth between ages 20 and 30 who has died while 25 people are of age 60 and above, 10 are aged between 50 and 59 years, nine (40 and 49 years), five (30 and 39 years) and one child.

For active cases, 37 are children aged between zero and nine years, 69 cases (10-19 years), 238 (20- 24 years), 268 (30-39 years), 172 (40-49 years), 112 (50-59) and 76 cases of people aged 60 and above. The rate of infection is also high in males than in females.