Baby in hospital with Covid as confronting symptoms in children revealed
An infant is among the patients being hospitalised with Covid in Victoria, as the Delta variant spreads and case numbers continue to rise.
With 21 of the 29 people hospitalised for Covid under the age of 50 in Victoria, almost a quarter of active cases are in children under the age of 10.
Covid testing head Jeroen Weimar said on Monday that children have been experiencing confronting Covid symptoms, reminding people it's "not an old person's thing".
The age of the baby in hospital is unknown, but Mr Weimar said the case was "concerning".
“It is a very young child in hospital, not stable,” Mr Weimar said.
“It was of concern to see a young child in hospital sick with Covid.”
"We have examples of children collapsing at school and vomiting at school, that is how ill they are," he said.
"Then we go to the house of and we realise a number of people in the household are positives. Very symptomatic.
"What we have seen in this outbreak, going right back to the beginning, two-and-a-half weeks ago, we have seen kids get Covid we have seen kids spreading within their families with a very high attack rate as the Premier has outlined with some of the examples of the schools.
"We have seen kids transmitting to each other. So nobody in this state is safe or immune from this."
112 children under the age of 10 have Covid
Along with the baby in hospital, there are currently nine people in ICU with coronavirus. Of these people, one is aged in their 20s, one is in their 30s, five are in their 40s and two are in their 50s.
“This is a very young age profile for an ICU unit,” Mr Weimar said.
"In terms of the age profile of all of our cases of the 494 Victorians, 112 are children [are] under the age of 10.
"100 are people aged between the ages of 10-19 and a further 79 are in their 20s. Again, it is a very, very young age profile of people currently active with coronavirus in the state."
Nobody who is in ICU has been vaccinated at this point in time.
Weimar says some who test tested are asymptomatic, but adds: "We have examples of children collapsing at school and vomiting at school, that is how ill they are. And then we go to the house of and we realise a number of people in the household are positives. Very symptomatic."
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) August 23, 2021
State's health services impacted
Mr Weimar said the widespread community transmission of Covid is starting to "significantly" impact Victoria's health services.
"That is one of the challenges with more widespread Covid community transmission that we‘re now starting to see," he said on Monday.
“We really need to pull this up very quickly.”
Third day of over 800 Covid cases as toughest NSW lockdown starts
Victoria records 71 new Covid infections, more mystery cases
Covid outbreak almost reaches 500
Victoria has recorded 71 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, with several still under investigation as the whole state remains in lockdown.
In the last 24-hour reporting period, 46,446 tests were conducted and 22,191 vaccine doses were administered.
"Of the 71 local cases, 49 are linked to known outbreaks and 22 are under investigation. Further case information will be provided this morning," Victoria's Department of Health tweeted on Monday.
There are now 494 active cases in the state.
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