The World Health Organization has warned that spikes in coronavirus transmission in a number of countries were being driven by young people "letting down their guard". "Young people are not invincible," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva. While the pandemic, which has killed more than 17 million people worldwide, has disproportionately impacted the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions, the WHO chief stressed that "younger people are at risk too". He said a major challenge in trying to rein in the novel coronavirus was "convincing younger people of this risk". The WHO chief said there was evidence that "spikes of cases in some countries are being driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the northern hemisphere summer." WHO's technical lead for Covid-19 Maria Van Kerkhove lamented in particular that nightclubs in a number of places had become "amplifiers" of transmission. Tedros insisted that "young people must take the same precautions to protect themselves and protect others as everyone else".

The World Health Organization has warned that spikes in coronavirus transmission in a number of countries were being driven by young people "letting down their guard". "Young people are not invincible," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva. While the pandemic, which has killed more than 17 million people worldwide, has disproportionately impacted the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions, the WHO chief stressed that "younger people are at risk too". He said a major challenge in trying to rein in the novel coronavirus was "convincing younger people of this risk". The WHO chief said there was evidence that "spikes of cases in some countries are being driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the northern hemisphere summer." WHO's technical lead for Covid-19 Maria Van Kerkhove lamented in particular that nightclubs in a number of places had become "amplifiers" of transmission. Tedros insisted that "young people must take the same precautions to protect themselves and protect others as everyone else".