Younger population no longer the majority of new Covid deaths

In July, Brazilians aged 60 years or over accounted for 51 percent of deaths registered in Brazil due to Covid-19. This means the elderly are once again those who die most frequently from the virus in the country, a trend that has not been seen since December of last year.

ICU admissions for over 60s due to the coronavirus also rose again to 42.1 percent last month, an increase that had not been registered for six months, according to data from Brazil’s public health system (SUS) database.

The data does not show an increase in the absolute number of coronavirus deaths among the elderly in the country — this, like for all other age groups, is dropping. The increase is seen in the proportion of people aged 60 and over in the total death toll. This may be due to an increase in the vaccination of the younger population, the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant in the country, or the loss of effectiveness of vaccines applied months ago.

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