Washington, June 17 (RHC)-- The new coronavirus has now infected more than eight million people and killed over 436,000 across the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Authors of the study said that their research had been focused on underlying health conditions for considering the number of individuals that might need to be shielded or vaccinated as the pandemic rages across the world.

The research further estimated that around four percent of the global population – some 349 million people – would require hospitalization if they contract the novel coronavirus. It added that the figure included patients without underlying medical conditions, such as healthy, older adults, warning that the risk of hospitalization would soar with age.

“As countries move out of lockdown, governments are looking for ways to protect the most vulnerable from a virus that is still circulating. We hope our estimates will provide useful starting points for designing measures to protect those at increased risk of severe disease,” said Associate Professor Andrew Clark from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK, and the lead author of the study.