There are three ‘clear’ factors that increase your risk of coronavirus, Professor Chris Whitty has warned.
The chief medical officer answered questions on the coronavirus pandemic in the UK at a press briefing yesterday.
While he revealed that three key factors appear to increase your risk of catching the virus, he admitted that it remains unclear why ethnic minority groups appear to be more at risk.
"It's absolutely critical that we find out which groups are most at risk so we can help protect them," he told the briefing.
"There are three things which are really clear - and ethnicity is less clear.”
Underlying health conditions
According to Professor Whitty, 90% of people who have died from coronavirus in the UK had at least one other condition, including cardiovascular disease.
Yesterday, figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that of the deaths that involved Covid-19 last month, there was at least one pre-existing condition in 91 per cent of cases.
The most common pre-existing condition was ischaemic heart disease, followed by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases and influenza and pneumonia.
Age
Professor Whitty explained that age is one of the key factors that increases your risk of coronavirus, adding that it’s ‘critical’ to protect older people.
The ONS data revealed that the death rate due to coronavirus increases significantly with age, starting from age 55 in males, and 65 in females.
Overall, 20% of deaths were in people between the ages of 80 and 84 years.
Gender
While the reason for it remains unclear, Professor Whitty said that it’s ‘very clear’ that being male increases your risk of coronavirus.
According to ONS, there were more deaths involving COVID-19 among males than females up to 3 April. Of the 4,122 deaths registered, 2,523 were men and 1,599 women.
Gender appears to play a key factor in death rate in every age group, although the difference was most apparent in the 65-74 age bracket.
