How many are actually sick?
The powers that be knows the populace are waking up to the BS about the wuhan virus. Hence more warnings n exaggerations about the virus infecting the young etc.
Intensive care nurse warns 'what we are seeing now is young people who are going to die'
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A women wearing a blue surgical mask and dark blue scrubs.
Michelle Spence says the Royal Melbourne Hospital has patients with COVID-19 in their 30s.(ABC News: James Hancock)
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A senior Melbourne intensive care nurse says hospitals are preparing for the prospect of deaths among younger Victorians as authorities battle to rein in the state's coronavirus cases.
Key points:
From the start of July, a quarter of COVID-19 infections have been in Victorians aged in their 20s
Four children are in hospital and 20 per cent of the state's coronavirus patients are under the age of 50
A senior ICU nurse manager says there is "no doubt" younger adults with coronavirus will die
The head intensive care unit nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Michelle Spence, said there was a growing number of younger adults being hospitalised with the virus.
"What we are seeing now is young people who are going to die. There is no doubt about it," she said.
"And these are people who are 30s, 40s, 50s, who have no past history."
She said deaths in Victoria had so far predominantly been in older people, but that would change.
Yesterday, authorities revealed 20 per cent of people in Victorian hospitals with the virus were aged under 50, including four children.
Data provided by the health department on Tuesday showed 34 people under 50 were being treated in Victorian hospitals, including two people in their 20s and two people in their 30s in intensive care.
The Royal Melbourne Hospital has acquired a further 22 ventilators as the intensive care unit prepares for a surge in cases.
Ms Spence, who is the hospital's ICU nurse manager, said the hospital had patients ranging from their 30s to their 80s "and all of them are at varying degrees of their COVID journey".
"It is definitely not an old person's disease," Ms Spence said.
She said a COVID patient's time in the intensive care unit was a long, slow process, where very ill people were separated from their families.
"Being in ICU is not a nice place to be," she said.
"It is absolutely not a comfortable thing to do."
Ms Spence warned the process of recovery, even after patients leave ICU, could take a long time.
She urged Melburnians of all ages to follow the directive to wear a face mask when outside their homes, saying wearing a mask was "way more comfortable than being on a ventilator".
Premier's warning to younger Victorians
Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday said a significant proportion of the state's recent new COVID-19 cases were younger people and issued a firm warning to young people: follow the rules.
"It would be wrong to assume that young people are somehow more immune to this," he said.
"If you want this to be over, if you want to get to the other side of it and find that COVID normal … and be able to go and have a beer, or go and have a meal with a friend and be able to move around the community much more freely than you can now, you've got to follow the rules."
Mr Andrews warned: "There are a lot of young people who have died of this in other parts of the world."
"There are a lot of otherwise healthy people … and they have become ill," he said.
"This is not just something that affects people that are frail-aged."
Mr Andrews said there was growing international evidence that the virus was lingering for a prolonged period of time in the form of other chronic health issues.
"This is not something you want to get, it is not something you want to spread. Regardless of your age, gender, your faith background, your postcode, your income level, everybody is in this together."
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said COVID-19 was "not an older person's disease".
"Our data from the start of July shows us that a quarter of the infections that we are seeing in our community are actually amongst young people in their 20s.
"By way of comparison, people in their 60s only represent 6 per cent of people who have been diagnosed with this virus."
Younger people often in 'frontline' jobs
A new State Government payment for people without paid sick leave who need to isolate while waiting for coronavirus test results is in part designed to help younger workers in casual or insecure work.
Victoria already has a $1,500 hardship payment for eligible workers who test positive to the virus or are a close contact of a confirmed case and have been told to self-isolate.
Earlier this week, the Premier revealed about nine in 10 people were continuing to move about the community after developing symptoms, and just over half of people who had been tested did not immediately self-isolate.
A worker in a high-vis vest wearing a blue surgical mask next to rows of red meat in an aisle in Woolworths.
A new $300 payment is aimed at helping workers in casual or insecure work.(ABC News: Daniel Fermer)
Felicity Sowerbutts from the Young Workers Centre, which aims to help empower younger people in the workforce, welcomed the new $300 payment, saying a large number of younger workers were on the "frontline" in insecure or casual jobs at places like supermarkets and fast food outlets.
"The $300 payment does plug a gap and supports workers without sick leave when they are isolating and waiting for a test result," she said.
She agreed the gravity of the situation in Victoria was now getting through to younger workers and she urged them to make sure employers were providing personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks, hand sanitiser and screens so that risks were minimised.
Cases may have plateaued
A research epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, Professor John Mathews, said he was not surprised by the number of younger adults contracting the virus.
"We know that older people are at greater risk of severe disease and older people are more able to stay at home — it's probably not unexpected that younger people have been more socially active even with the social distancing requirements, so I'm not surprised.
"It may be that simple social explanation for why there are increased numbers of infections reported in younger people," he said.
He said Victoria's cases may have "plateaued now at around 300 or 400 a day".
"If by next week the numbers are not going up, that's telling us that with the support of the population, the current policy settings should help suppress the current wave," he said.
