Four children are currently battling coronavirus in Victorian hospitals, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has confirmed.
Ms Mikakos stressed no one was safe when it came to the deadly virus with 20 per cent of patients currently in hospital aged under 50.
"This is not an older person's disease," she said.
"A quarter of infections we are seeing are young people in their 20s.
"People in their 60s only represent six per cent.
"This is a highly contagious virus that can strike anyone in our community regardless of their age, regardless of their circumstances."
READ MORE: Follow our live coronavirus coverage with updates from across the country
Premier Daniel Andrews made an appeal to "younger people" to obey the rules, saying they too can suffer.
Mr Andrews said he was concerned press conferences were not the medium to communicate to this demographic and get the message across.
"I'm not singling younger people out for the purposes of blame. It is a significant part of our new cases and there is no getting around that," he said.
"There are a lot of young people who have died of this."
Ms Mikakos gave her condolences to the families of the five Victorians who lost their lives overnight.
"My thoughts and my sympathies are with those families and this demonstrates the growing toll this terrible virus is taking on our community."
Across the border in NSW, a one-year-old child is among 19 new coronavirus cases.
The child is linked to a man in his 60s who went to the Thai Rock Restaurant in Wetherill Park in Sydney's west and then travelled to Port Stephens on the NSW mid-north coast.
More to come.
You can get up-to-date information from the Federal Government's Coronavirus Australia app, available on the App Store, Google Play and the Government's WhatsApp channel.
Beyond Blue's Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service is a 24/7 service free of charge to all Australians. Visit the site here or call 1800512348.
For coronavirus breaking news alerts and livestreams straight to your smartphone sign up to the 9News app and set notifications to on at the App Store or Google Play.
from 9News https://ift.tt/3hsHtsq
via IFTTT
0 Comments