A health worker checks a man who went to a church that an Itaewon-related patient visited, in an outdoor screening center at Michuhol Ward Office in Incheon, west of Seoul, on May 14, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — An absolute majority of South Korea’s new coronavirus patients aged under 50 have recovered from the disease without receiving oxygen therapy, a study showed Monday.
The study of 3,060 COVID-19 patients across South Korea, conducted by the National Medical Center, said only 1.2 percent of patients below the age of 50 required supplemental oxygen therapy 14 days after showing symptoms.
In contrast, 17.3 percent of coronavirus patients aged 50 or older had to be treated on ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machines.
The study is based on an analysis of patients admitted to 55 hospitals across South Korea between Jan. 20, when the country’s first case was reported, and May 31.
The findings also showed 1.5 percent of patients aged under 50 required oxygen therapy 28 days after showing symptoms. The comparable figure for those aged 50 or older came to 13.2 percent.
The mortality rate for COVID-19 patients aged under 50 amounted to zero 28 days after showing symptoms.
Comparable figures were 0.5 percent for patients in their 50s, 0.9 percent for those in their 60s, 5.8 percent for septuagenarians and 14 percent for octogenarians.
The study appeared in the latest edition of the Journal of Korean Medical Science, an international journal published by the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.
The novel coronavirus has so far infected nearly 14,400 South Koreans, with the death toll reaching 301.
(Yonhap)
