Coronavirus cases Australia: Young people urged to take virus seriously

Health authorities are still trying to get young people to take COVID-19 seriously, reminding them how easily they could end up in intensive care.

Young people are again being reminded that they too could be struck down by coronavirus after the disease put two Aussies aged in their 30s in intensive care.

NSW’s chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed yesterday that a patient in their 30s was currently in the ICU after being struck down by coronavirus.

“We tend to say this disease affects the elderly, and it does on average, but there‘s still the young people who are impacted,” Dr Chant said.

“It is a call out to everyone to take COVID-19 very seriously.”

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jeremy McAnulty said today NSW had two patients in intensive care – the person in their 30s and another in their 70s.

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Australia has one of the best survival rates for coronavirus in the world. Picture: Lucas Barioulet/AFP

But it isn’t just in New South Wales that younger people are being affected by coronavirus.

A Victorian man in his 30s was admitted to hospital and spent time in intensive care last week after being struck down by coronavirus, making him one of the youngest Australians admitted to ICU with the illness so far.

And a Melbourne woman, pregnant with twins, remains in intensive care and on a ventilator at Royal Melbourne Hospital after she contracted the virus.

Kaillee Dyke was taken to hospital last week and put on a ventilator after struggling to breathe.

Her partner Chris Lassig said they had both caught coronavirus and while he recovered, she stayed very sick.

“She’s been there a week now, on a ventilator and sedated so she’s unaware of what’s going on. But she’s slowly making progress, breathing more and more by herself with the machine only providing back-up,” he said on July 18.

“It’s now a matter of waiting until her lungs have healed enough to work on their own. The doctors say with COVID-19 it’s very hard to predict, but hopefully it’ll be soon.”

For those who haven’t heard the news, this post may be a bit of a shock. Kaillee and I have both had COVID-19, and while...

Posted by Chris Lassig on Friday, 17 July 2020

Victoria announced three new deaths today – a woman in her 100s, a woman in her 90s and a woman in her 80s. This brings the state‘s death toll to 42.

There are 174 Victorians in hospital, 36 of whom are receiving intensive care. The numbers are an increase from yesterday when the state had 147 people in hospital and 31 in intensive care.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said this morning Australia’s intensive care unit capacity was at about 80 per cent, with the number being slightly higher in Victoria.

“Keeping in mind we are in the middle of the influenza, or what would usually be the influenza season and a lot of intensive cares would be close to 100 per cent of their usual capacity,” Dr Coatsworth told Today.

“So, to see them with two in 10 of their beds actually free is pretty good news in terms of how much extra capacity we have to fight COVID-19 in our intensive care units.”

Yesterday, Dr Coatsworth implored young people to take the disease seriously.

“We know that COVID-19 can affect all ages and it can affect all ages with severe disease,” he said.

“The issue is the proportion of people who get disease at varying age groups and it’s a reality that the older someone gets, the more likely they are to get severe disease.

“It‘s not to exempt anyone from the possibility of severe COVID-19 disease and the fact that we’ve got two people in their 30s … Assuming that they could well be healthy, it’s a real wake-up call for people who are in their 20s or 30s.

“This virus will not discriminate and potentially you could become very unwell, critically unwell, life-threateningly unwell.”

Dr Nick Coatsworth is asking young people to take the virus seriously Picture: David Gray/Getty Images

In the ICU, family members aren’t allowed to be by their loved ones’ sides when they die. Instead a nurse will stay with a patient and do video calls with their family.

ABC’s 7.30 was given access to three of Melbourne’s ICU wards, where doctors and nurses are working around the clock to help patients survive coronavirus.

Footscray Hospital ICU physician Dr Forbes McGain told 7.30 Victoria’s second wave had been “more concerning” because of the amount of community transmission.

“Our intensive care unit is filling up fast. It‘s quite distressing actually,” he said.

“We lost a patient the other day that we palliated. That’s really distressing to see, patients dying because of this.”

Dr McGain, who is working 12 hour shifts, said things were “particularly hard” for nurses.

“I feel for them, because they‘re the most exposed to the patients and trying to do all the good care that they can, but knowing that they’re at higher risk,” he said.

“And then you go home and you just hope that the family doesn’t get COVID from you.”