Young adults between the ages of 18 through 34 now make up 44% of positive COVID-19 cases in California. The figure is up from 29% compared to one month ago. The age group represents the largest share of COVID-19 cases in the state.
In San Diego County, the age group 20 through 39 makes up nearly 45% of positive cases.
The new data is based on numbers provided by the California Department of Public Health. The marked increase in positive cases in these age groups coincide with the reopening of many businesses, including bars and restaurants in the state and San Diego.
Dr. William Tseng, MD, with Kaiser Permanente in San Diego said:
“In general, younger people feel like they’re invincible. They move away from the mitigation strategies, the masking, and social distancing.”
NBC7 found young adults in PB not that concerned. Cami Hardman said, “Personally, I think I’m going to try to find a balance, so I don’t want to completely ignore it.”
Brian Pennington told the station:
“If we don’t have a vaccine, we’ve got to get over it one way or another, and that’s probably herd immunity. So, I think it might be the best route economically and health-wise.”
Dr. Tseng said herd immunity is a longshot with COVID-19 because, at this point, we’re only at about 2% of the population being infected with the virus. NBC7 reported:
And while more young adults have tested positive for COVID-19, the rate of hospitalizations and deaths in that age group remains low.
As of Tuesday in San Diego County, people between the age of 20 to 39 represented 13% of people hospitalized. The age group accounts for 2% of deaths, according to the health department.
“If you’re young and you’re healthy, you may end up in the hospital but your risk of dying is really much lower. So, are we going to see more hospitalizations? Maybe. But are we going to see a drastic increase in deaths in the young population, I wouldn’t say so yet,” said Tseng.
While the number of cases among young adults has skyrocketed in the last month, the exact opposite has happened in cases among people 50 years and older. The cases in that age group have dropped from 46% to 30.5% in the last month, according to the data.
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