With many young kids, the effects of some virus is completely different to that the virus has on adults. Kids can get some bug and a few days of bed rest, can be up and running around as if nothing has happened. Their parents on the other hand will be immobilised in bed for a week or longer before they start to feel better.
COVID-19 is apparently the same. With 10 young Victorians in their 20s in intensive care, it’s clear that it’s a killer for young and old alike.
Australia’s peak rural medical bodies warned today. The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) are urging young rural Australians to take social distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene messages very seriously. “We cannot overstate this,” RDAA president, Dr John Hall said. “Young people have been dying from COVID-19 overseas, and young people are in intensive care in Australia because of this very serious virus.”
There is no room for complacency in rural Australia – COVID-19 is not just a disease impacting on metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney.
Shepparton region has had 37 people contract the disease to date and currently, twenty people are being treated for it.
Everyone – urban and rural, young and old – needs to take personal responsibility for keeping themselves and others safe. That includes ensuring you are maintaining social distancing of at least 1.5 metres, frequenting washing or sanitising your hands, coughing or sneezing into a tissue or your elbow, wearing a mask and getting tested if you display any of the symptoms.
