Nearly one in every two Covid-related deaths in the second wave of the pandemic that is wracking Meghalaya currently has been among people between the ages of 50 and 69.
According to Health Department figures for April and May this year, which have been collated by Highland Post, 84 of the 170 (that is 49.41 percent) Covid fatalities in the state in the past six weeks have been of people in this age bracket.
This does not necessarily mean that people in their 50s and 60s are more susceptible to the disease. It could be that far more people in this category are catching the virus and consequently the fatalities are higher; the Health Department does not release the age breakdown of all of those who are infected, only those who have died from it.
The awful tally of 40 new Covid deaths over Saturday and Sunday took Meghalaya’s overall toll from the disease to 320. At the end of March 2021 this figure was 150. That means that in just a month and a half Meghalaya recorded more fatalities (170) from Covid-19 as the state had done in the previous 12 months (April 2020 to March 2021).
The virus appears to be more deadly now and this can be seen in its fatality rate. At the end of March 2021, the Covid fatality rate in the state was 1.07 percent but the rate for April-May stands at a worrying 1.83 percent.
By gender, in the last six weeks 58 percent of the coronavirus deaths have been among men and 42 percent among women. There have been more deaths among men than women in every age group except for the under-30s and 70s.
Anecdotally, the second wave has been worrying as younger people, previously thought to have been less at risk from the virus, have been making up greater numbers of the seriously ill and deceased. This holds true for Meghalaya as well, where 20.00 percent (34 out of 170 or one in five) of the Covid deaths since April 2021 have been among those 39 and younger.
Until recently only frontline and health workers in this age bracket would have been eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. In the long-term, getting more jabs into more arms is the way to prevent more deaths but, in the short-term, Meghalaya needs the lockdown and containment measures to dampen the second wave.
