Coronavirus: Young people warned it 'doesn't matter what age you are'
As two teenagers die after contracting COVID-19, young people are told to observe "all the social distancing measures".
Tuesday 31 March 2020 23:42, UK
Young people are being warned to follow "all the social distancing measures" after two teenagers died while infected with COVID-19.
Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, and Luca Di Nicola, 19, both passed away after picking up the deadly virus.
Dr Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, said the deaths of young people would come as a "huge shock" to their families.
Those still youthful "tend not to think of death", she said in the daily Downing Street press conference, so it is "quite easy perhaps to not think of yourself as part of the risk, or part of the affected group".
But Dr Harries added that young people can still be affected and "it doesn't matter what age you are - you should be staying at home and observing all the social distancing measures we have highlighted".
In Belgium, a 12-year-old girl has become the youngest known person to die in Europe after contracting coronavirus.
A GP told Sky News that "even with a good immune system, some people can become very unwell".
Dr Ellie Cannon added that she and her colleagues "do see this with other infections too out of the blue".
And COVID-19 does not need to be serious at the start in order for it to lead to major health implications.
"Every year otherwise healthy young people die from sepsis, and that too can start from a mild infection," Dr Cannon pointed out.
It is also the case that an underlying health problem may remain undiagnosed until a patient is treated for something else.
If someone has a high of COVID-19, they could be more adversely impacted than someone with a lower level of the virus in their system.
Another reason why a young person might become very unwell is the speed with which they seek medical help.
Dr Cannon said the most critical symptom is breathlessness - alongside a cough and fever.
Anything to do with breathing is the "big line - the big distinction and a sign to seek urgent help", she said.
It is possible, too, for someone to get something else at the same time as COVID-19 - for example bacterial pneumonia that may prove fatal.
The virus is "deluging the country", Dr Cannon added, explaining that while it is not unusual for young, healthy people to die, those deaths are usually spaced out.
The "basic notion" people need to remember is that the "human population has never had COVID-19 before - so all the cases are happening now and all the less likely deaths and tragedies will happen at once", she said.
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She added that the 19-year-old's death would be "pretty rare" and there will be tens of thousands of other teenagers who will have a much milder experience of COVID-19.