**2.3 COVID-19: a disease of the elderly**

There have been several reports of young people who get infected and even die due to COVID-19. As earlier mentioned, COVID-19 seems to be more lethal in older people. However, anyone can get infected and develop severe symptoms including young people. The risk for severe symptom from COVID-19 increases with age, those with immune-compromising conditions and a weak immune system, which are more peculiar to older people. Severe illness implies the infected patient will require hospitalization, a ventilator, and professional medical care. Data from **Table 1** provided by New York City Health [7] as of April 14, 2020, shows the disparity in the death rate among the different age group.

As shown in **Table 1**, anyone can be infected with COVID-19 and not only elderly people, although the mortality rate increases with increasing age.
