A prominent North Jersey general surgeon wants to debunk what he calls “a myth" surrounding the coronavirus: It’s not just reserved for older people.

“The real horrifying thing about COVID-19 is that people thought it was going to really only affect the elderly, and instead this is anything but," said Dr. Stavros Christoudias, who chairs the New Jersey Doctor-Patient Alliance.

“I’m at four different hospitals, and I’d say that less than half of the people that are critical with the coronavirus are over the age of 50. This is alarming.’’

At least two of the 11 deaths in New Jersey due to COVID-19 were men in their 30s, according to the state.

Christoudias’ statement is further supported by a federal study released earlier this week that reports nearly 20% of the people hospitalized with coronavirus in the United States are young adults between the ages of 20 and 44.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released Wednesday, shows the risk of dying is significantly higher in older people, yet younger people comprise a large portion of hospitalizations.

The fatality rate is highest among people over the age of 85, ranging from 10% to 27%, according to CDC data on outcomes for U.S. COVID-19 patients. The rate ranges from 3% to 11% among people 65 to 84. It drops to 1% to 3% among people 55 to 64 and to less than 1% for people 20 to 54.

The report, which tracked 4,226 cases between Feb. 12 and March 16, noted there were no fatalities among people 19 or younger.

However, a troubling discovery was found in the hospitalizations data. Twenty percent of the 508 patients known to have needed hospital care were between the ages of 20 and 44.

People 85 years and older made up 9%. Those 65 to 84 accounted for 36%, the 55-64 age range made up 17% and patients 45 to 54 comprised 18%.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned young people about the coronavirus pandemic even though their fatality rate is low.

“You yourself could be in harm’s way,” Fauci said in an interview on CNN. “You’re not out of danger."

Other top U.S. health officials also noted younger people can suffer serious illness due to the coronavirus.

“There are concerning reports coming out of France and Italy about some young people getting seriously ill, and very seriously ill in the ICUs,’’ said Dr. Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronavirus task force. “We think part of this may be that people heeded the early data coming out of China and coming out of South Korea that the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions were at particular risk.

“It may have been that the millennial generation will carry us through for the next multiple decades, (but) there may be a disproportional number of infections among that group. And so even if it’s a rare occurrence, it may be seen more frequently in that group and be evident now.”

The reports show younger people in Italy and France may have been exposed to the virus because they weren’t concerned about the risk, Birx said.

“We’re looking at that information very carefully,’’ she said. “We have not seen any significant mortality in the children, but we are concerned about the early reports … So, again, I’m going to call on that generation that’s part of that (millennial) group. We need them to be healthy."

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Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ.