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Men in East Java more prone to COVID-19 with 61% of cases, 77% of deaths
The East Java COVID-19 task force data has revealed that males make up 77 percent of the COVID-19 fatalities in East Java, with 17 male patients dying out of a total of 22 deaths.
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A medical worker prepares the isolation room of Bung Karno Regional Hospital in Surakarta, Central Java, on March 27. The hospital has allocated its four isolation rooms for COVID-19 patients. (Antara/Mohammad Ayudha )
Men are more vulnerable than women to COVID-19 in East Java, according to the province’s COVID-19 task force.
East Java COVID-19 task force tracing team head Kohar Hari Santoso said that as of Friday 154 out of 252 COVID-19 cases, 61 percent, in the province were male.
The task force data also revealed that males made up 77 percent of the COVID-19 fatalities in East Java, with 17 male patients dying out of a total of 22 deaths.
"Not only do men have more of a chance of being infected, but they also have a higher mortality rate from the virus infection. This might be because men go out from home more often than women do," Kohar told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He, however, said the gender proportion of the confirmed cases and the fatalities could change in the future as the outbreak had yet to reach its peak.
Based on the task force data, 82 percent, 18 out of 22 individuals, of those who died with the virus had comorbidity factors.
Kohar said the youngest among those who died without comorbidity was aged between 20 and 29 years of age, without specifying the exact age of the fatality.
Read also: 'Puskesmas' move up to COVID-19 front lines amid overburdened health system
He acknowledged that COVID-19 alone could cause fatalities among healthy young people, although at a very low rate.
Most of those who died with COVID-19, as shown on the data, had comorbidity factors such as diabetes mellitus, heart problems, hypertension, sepsis, obesity, bronchitis or asthma.
"Diabetes mellitus is the factor that we find in most fatalities," he said.
In general, Kohar said, deaths by age group spanned from the 10-19 to 80-89 age groups. The youngest was an 11-year-old girl in Pamekasan regency, who died with dengue shock syndrome as the comorbidity factor, he added.
"Around 75 percent of fatalities are among those in their 40s to 60s," he said.
As of Saturday, East Java saw 267 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 26 fatalities and 65 recoveries.
