CLEVELAND, Ohio — As additional COVID-19 cases are confirmed we're starting to learn more about the virus and how it's affecting patients differently.
“We have seen, I think, a higher rate of hospitalization in some of those midlife ages, the 30s, 40s and 50s, than they did in China,” explains University Hospitals Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Amy Edwards.
“Whether that’s a factor of a different population in the U.S., we’re going to have to look, do we have higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, we don’t know these things yet and so there’s just so much that still needs to be sorted out.”
Edwards says we’ve seen pediatric deaths but details, as far as pre-existing conditions, also needs to be studied.
“It does still seem to be true that in the vast majority of cases kids do fine, as far as I can tell, the numbers are still accurate that up to 90 percent of kids are either going to be mild or asymptomatic,” she explains.
“Even if you go back to the data coming out of China from early days, there was still mortality in those younger age groups we just didn’t focus on it because of how huge the mortality rate was in the older group.”0
33-year-old New York City Author and Stow Native, Olive Persimmon is fighting COVID-19 symptoms at home.
She says everything started with her stomach feeling strange, “it turned into fatigue, massive fatigue where you sleep half the day and then it moved into fluid in my lungs and a nasty cough.”
Persimmon says she also had a mild fever, and lost her sense of taste and smell. She’s been unable to get a test.
“The doctor was just like, look we’re going to mark you as COVID positive, you basically have all the symptoms stay home,” she explains.
“She basically was like if you’re breathing gets bad enough call us back or call 911.”
Persimmon says she’s getting better and beyond grateful she can fight it at home.
“I have heard about young people dying and that’s terrifying,” she says. “A very young nurse just died in NYC, someone I know lost her brother, someone else I know on Facebook lost one of his friends, he was a 33-year-old father, so I think this idea that young people aren’t contracting it, in a way that’s serious is not true.”
Edwards says either way the overall messaging doesn’t change, “at this point, no matter your risk, just stay home if you can.”
Click here for our special coronavirus section.