Japan has seen a sharp increase in the proportion of deaths due to COVID-19 that have occurred among people age 59 or under amid the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic together with the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, the health ministry said Tuesday.
Through the fifth wave of the pandemic, from mid-July to early September, those age 59 or under accounted for 20.6% of a total of 860 COVID-19 deaths, with the rate jumping more than fivefold from the 3.8% figure reported before early February, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
A total of 29 people age 39 or under died due to COVID-19 in the fifth wave, accounting for nearly half of the cumulative total of 63 fatalities in the same age group since the start of the pandemic, the ministry said.