Who is getting sick from coronavirus? These age groups and people are most at risk

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, killing nine people in the U.S. and infecting 60, the majority of those who have died were elderly and had underlying medical conditions, health officials say.

Washington reported three additional deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to The Hill.

“Most of the American public” has a low health risk from the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those in “communities where ongoing community spread with the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported” have “elevated” but still a low risk of getting sick, the CDC said.

Healthcare workers who are caring for people who have been exposed to the virus, people in close contact with people who tested positive for the virus, and travelers who’ve returned from places impacted by coronavirus are at a higher risk of getting sick, according to the CDC.

There have been more than 92,000 cases worldwide and more than 3,100 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The majority of people who catch the virus have “minor symptoms,” according to NBC News.

“The one thing we really don’t need is mass hysteria,” Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told NBC News. “Eighty percent of people have such minor symptoms, they don’t actually require any medical care at all. The 20 percent who do feel quite ill need to be evaluated, and some of them will require hospitalization and some of them will require intensive care.”

The elderly and people with “underlying medical conditions” are most at-risk for having severe symptoms, Murphy told NBC.

The World Health Organization found 78% of the cases in China as of Feb. 20 were in those age 30 to 69, according to Stat News.

China CDC found the death rate was 14.8% for people who were age 80 or older, according to Stat News. Those who were already sick were likely to get severe symptoms of the illness, the outlet reported.

Men were also more likely to get sick. China CDC found 106 men got sick for every 100 women, according to Stat News. The outlet reported that it was more likely due to “travel and contacts” reasons and not “inherent biological differences.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Who is getting sick from coronavirus? These age groups and people are most at risk."