Hundreds of people are ALREADY infected but don’t know it, top virus doctor warns – and the worst is yet to come
- Hundreds of Australians are likely to already be infected with the deadly virus
- Clusters of the disease are already forming, causing it to spread quicker
- Doctors warned that each infected person is likely to infect at least two others
- At a Sydney care home, four patients and three members of staff are infected
- On Saturday, a doctor in Toorak, Victoria was diagnosed after a trip to the US
Australia is on track to suffer a coronavirus pandemic, with dangerous clusters of the respiratory disease already forming, experts have warned.
It comes as Australia’s number of cases rose to 67 overnight, with eight cases where the patient hadn’t travelled overseas – known as human-to-human transmission.
All of these are in Sydney’s north, around the epicentre of Epping, Ryde and Macquarie Park.
In another worrying case, a doctor from Toorak in Victoria was diagnosed with the disease on Saturday morning – after treating 70 vulnerable patients.
John Dwyer, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of NSW, said the situation is ‘going to get a lot worse before it gets better’.
He also warned that hundreds of Australians are already infected, but aren’t aware yet, and that every infected person goes on to infect at least two others.
‘We are definitely going to have a pandemic in Australia,’ Professor Dwyer told the Australian.
Comment:
This is not an article I wish to post, but in the words of Chris Martenson
When we see the numbers rising….
Remember; it’s case, case, case, cluster, clusters, boom!
The total number of coronavirus cases in Australia rose to 67 overnight, with several people infected in Sydney’s north-west – making the country’s first ‘cluster’ of the disease
‘The experience with other epidemics is that once this happens, there must be hundreds of people who are infected in Australia at this stage.
‘And for every one infected person, the average is they will infect two and a half others.’
To date, the virus has infected more than 100,000 people and killed more than 3,300 worldwide.
It comes as tens of thousands of Australians were forced into isolation, with offices, schools and even a maternity ward going into lockdown over coronavirus fears.
Health officials are seen at the aged care home in Macquarie Park, where one woman died and a further two residents caught coronavirus after a staff member became infected
Macquarie Park (pictured), 13km north-west of Sydney’s CBD, has become Australia’s coronavirus epicentre – with seven people infected and a childcare centre dramatically shut
Health workers at Canterbury, Liverpool and Ryde Hospitals in New South Wales have been struck by the deadly respiratory disease, forcing dozens into isolation.
At the embattled Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care centre in north-west Sydney, vulnerable, elderly residents face a terrifying wait – as two more workers tested positive.
One resident, 95, has already died after contracting the disease, with staff now refusing to work at the centre – forcing NSW Health to send in its own team.
NSW chief health office Dr Kerry Chant told reporters on Friday: ‘We’ve had another worker at the aged care facility confirmed today, that takes it to four residents and two health care workers.’
A woman wears a face mask in Sydney’s Chinatown on March 4, as cases of the coronavirus continue to rise
Epping Boys High School (pictured), in Sydney’s north-west, will be closed on Friday after a 16-year-old boy was diagnosed with coronavirus
‘We could see other cases in that nursing home and that wouldn’t surprise me, what we are trying to do is stop further spread.’
Meanwhile, the 17 children from the Banksia Cottage day care centre, who visited the Lodge last week have tested negative for coronavirus.
But a 16-year-old boy at the nearby Epping Boys High School is now battling the disease in hospital, forcing the school to close.
It is the first school in Australia to close down, after similar action was taken in Italy, Japan, South Korea and France.
The teenage boy’s mother works at Ryde Hospital, alongside a 53-year-old doctor who is already infected.
That hospital has seen 40 medical staff forced into isolation, including 13 doctors, 23 nurses and four others.
A further eight patients of the doctor are showing no symptoms, while 29 other patients identified as casual contacts are being chased up.
But in more worrying news, NSW officials revealed on Friday that a woman previously diagnosed with the disease had been working at Canterbury Hospital in western Sydney.
The maternity centre at the Sydney Adventist Hospital in Wagroonga was put into lockdown on Friday amid fears patients and their babies could be left vulnerable to the disease.
Visitors are still being allowed into Mater Hospital’s maternity ward, but are being asked to stay away if a person is ill or has flu-like symptoms.
A woman loads her daughter into the car after taking her out of the Macquarie Park childcare centre early on Thursday. She said she was worried about her children catching the virus
Banksia Cottage childcare centre (pictured) in Sydney’s north-west is just across the road from Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care complex where multiple cases of the infectious disease have been reported this week
On Friday night, authorities confirmed two more workers at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care centre were diagnosed.
The 24-year-old woman and 21-year-old man are now being treated.
Four residents and three staff members have been confirmed as cases at the facility to date. Another 18-year-old woman was also diagnosed on Friday night.
Coercion Code - "Dark Times are upon us" 