'Incredibly quick': Specialist details Delta strain's horrific symptoms
As Covid cases soar in NSW, a lung specialist has pleaded with people to get their Covid-19 vaccinations, describing the horrific symptoms those infected with the deadly virus suffer.
"My hope is when you can understand a little bit more about how it feels to [get sick with] Covid-19," Dr Lucy Morgan, a respiratory physician at Nepean and Concord hospitals said on Wednesday.
"We might transfer some of our anxieties about the vaccine to feeling a bit more anxious about the illness."
"Two doses of [the] Covid-19 vaccination will be your suit of armour," she continued.
"It will protect you from getting sick from Covid-19, from needing admission to hospital and from ending up in ICU. Book your vaccine today.
"Protect your loved ones and protect yourself."
Covid symptoms are 'mild' at first
Dr Morgan said the initial symptoms of Covid are similar to a severe cold or flu, but the highly contagious Delta variant can result in patients getting worse very quickly.
"The Delta strain of Covid-19 is incredibly infectious," she said. "It spreads so incredibly quick."
"Getting vaccinated protects you against catching that virus and it also definitely reduces the chances that you could get infected, that you get sick enough to end up in hospital."
She also urged people to call an ambulance if they need one.
"If you have Covid-19, and you feel breathless, you have trouble reading, and you are feeling dizzy, you need to call an ambulance," she said.
"An ambulance is free, your medical care will be free, there will be people who can care for you even if English is not your first language."
Dr Chant echoed this, telling people not to defer care if it's needed.
"We don't want to see the consequences of delayed care," she said.
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Headaches, coughs and nausea all Delta symptoms
Dr Morgan continued, listing the symptoms patients have been experiencing, including severe headaches that "takes more than just Panadol to relieve it".
"Many of my patients have a terrible cough, the sort of cough that leaves you breathless and they can't move or speak without the cough becoming really terrible.
"Lots of patients have diarrhoea. Lots of patients have nausea. They just can't eat or drink anything. And people feel so overwhelmingly fatigued, all they can do is lie on the bed. Some of these patients become increasingly breathless."
Devastating warning about 'Covid orphans'
Dr Morgan issued a sober warning to parents hesitant about getting vaccinated, warning them they could be leaving their children as "Covid orphans".
“My Covid wards are completely full today – full of young tradies, of pharmacy staff, of wives and mothers and fathers of young children,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
“Everyone has a story of family distress, several have their partners in other hospitals leaving their small children to be ‘Covid orphans’ in the children’s hospital because their grandparents are unvaccinated or sick themselves.”
"Please Australia. Get vaccinated," she said.
NSW records 919 cases of Covid-19
NSW recorded a big jump in cases on Wednesday, recording a daily high of 919 new cases.
Of these, only 178 are linked to a known case or cluster and the source of infection for 741 mystery cases are under investigation.
758 cases were out in the community when infectious. Their isolation status is under review.
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