Victorian Health Authorities Only Realised A Man In His 20s Was Sick With COVID After He Died

A Victorian man in his 20s has died from COVID-19 despite not being a previously-known positive case.

It was only when forensic doctors were conducting post-mortem examinations that they realised the man, who was from Hume, had contracted the disease.

“The death of the gentleman in his 20s is extraordinarily sad, and we do pass on our sympathies to his loved ones,” Victorian Department of Health deputy secretary Kate Matson said at the daily COVID press conference on Tuesday.

“We have very little information with respect to that gentleman. Unfortunately, we are aware he died of COVID due to post-mortem analysis.

“He wasn’t a case we were aware of. We’re getting information from the coroner and going to try to provide support to this family.

“A post-mortem I believe is underway. However initial information from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine is the diagnosis will be COVID.”

Reported yesterday: 445 new local cases and 0 cases acquired overseas.
– 36,615 vaccines administered
– 42,694 test results received
– Sadly, two people with COVID-19 have died

More later: https://t.co/eUcG50Y3T0#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/BUjGKZWPBP

— Victorian Department of Health (@VicGovDH) September 13, 2021

These examinations are ongoing, and it’s possible other potential causes of death could be found, but the fact that he died while having COVID, and that this went unnoticed, is pretty bad news.

“So we’re classifying it as a COVID death,” Matson added.

“If further investigations recover anything else, we’ll reclassify. But that’s the indication we have at the moment.”

The news comes as a woman in her 80s from Brimbank – who was a known case – died overnight, while 445 local cases were also recorded in Victoria.