Buenos Aires, Aug 13 (IANS): Argentina's mortality rate for COVID-19 patients aged over 60 years rose to 10.5 per cent, the Ministry of Health warned.
This figure is far higher than the average mortality rate nationwide, which is 1.9 per cent, Carla Vizzotti, the Health Ministry's health access secretary, told the media on Wednesday.
COVID-19's mortality rate rises in direct correlation with the patient's age, as well as any pre-existing conditions, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Secretary as saying.
Compared with other countries with a similar number of cases, Vizzotti said the differences between Argentina and those countries are that their outbreaks occurred in a very short period of time and they have stronger health systems.
Since detecting its first COVID-19 case on March 3, Argentina has reported 268,574 cases of infection and 5,213 deaths so far.