In Australia, as Melbourne continues to celebrate opening up, health officials have expressed concern about a growing proportion of Covid cases in young people, particularly in regional Victoria, APA reports citing The Guardian.
Victoria recorded nine deaths and 1,750 new local Covid cases in the 24 hours since Melbourne emerged from its sixth lockdown. The new infections were found from 72,858 test results processed on Friday.
But as the state entered its second day of newly relaxed freedoms, the Covid commander, Jeroen Weimar, said Victoria was “not out of the woods yet”.
He pointed to an increase in young people catching the virus in recent days, while about 14% of the cases recorded on Saturday were from regional Victoria. In metropolitan Melbourne 29% of all cases recorded were under the age of 19 and in regional Victoria 38% of all cases were under the age of 19.
“To all the young Victorians amongst us, you are particularly vulnerable at this time to running into friends and associates who are Covid-positive,” Weimar said. “These are our children and students who are clearly very active in the community.”
It came as the city began its first weekend out of the world’s longest string of Covid lockdowns with spontaneous street parties, live music and packed pubs, bars and restaurants.
Despite rain on Saturday morning, people queued for barbers and breakfast restaurants, all of which are open only to the fully vaccinated.
Late on Friday, people broke into a spontaneous street party in Melbourne’s southeast and many rejoiced with their first drink in months in a pub with friends, social media footage showed.
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