Elderly most at Risk from the Coronavirus
COVID-19 is an acute respiratory illness triggered by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The virus responsible for COVID-19, emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spread across the globe. This coronavirus can lead to a range of disease severity, from asymptomatic cases to acute respiratory failure and fatalities. Factors that elevate the risk of severe illness comprise advanced age, compromised immune function, underlying medical conditions (such as diabetes and chronic kidney disease), and pregnancy. Vaccination has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing transmission and significantly preventing severe disease and death.
Authorities in China have published a comprehensive report on the mortality rates associated with the Coronavirus. The average fatality rate is 2.3%, but it changes significantly with age – rising to nearly 15% among those over 80 years old.
Chinese health authorities have published their first major report on COVID-19, the official name for the coronavirus. The document, compiled by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, draws from a dataset of 72,314 patient records and 44,672 confirmed cases in Mainland China as of February 11, 2020. Within this dataset, there were 1,023 recorded fatalities, resulting in a case fatality rate of 2.3 percent. 
Notably, among the five most impacted countries, Iran currently reports the highest proportion of deaths. According to media reports it can be assumed that there is a high number of unreported cases of infected and dead people too, as the Iranian leadership is believed by some observers to be covering up the scale of the problem.
In the areas with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, specifically in mainland China, the proportion of cases resulting in fatalities currently stands at 3.8 percent. Here, too, there could be a higher number of unreported cases. According to health experts, the prognosis depends to a large extent on whether the infected person already suffers from previous illnesses such as heart, circulatory or lung diseases. For these patients the probability of a fatal outcome is much higher.
