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Coronavirus: 21-year-old ‘becomes youngest victim with no underlying health issues’

‘To all the people that thinks it’s just a virus, please think again,’ mother says

Zoe Tidman
Wednesday 25 March 2020 17:47 GMT
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Johnson says UK is 'massively ramping up our testing programmes'

A 21-year-old woman has reportedly become the UK’s youngest coronavirus victim with no underlying health issues.

Chloe Middleton, from Buckinghamshire, died after testing positive for Covid-19, according to her family.

“To all the people out there that think it’s just a virus, please think again,” her mother, Diane Middleton, wrote on Facebook.

“Speaking from a personal experience, this so-called virus has taken the life of my 21-year-old daughter,” Ms Middleton said.

In an appeal to take preventive action, the 21-year-old’s aunt, Emily Mistry, said her niece “had no underlying health issues”.

“My loved ones are going through the most unimaginable pain,” she wrote. ”The reality of this virus is only just unfolding before our very eyes. Please, please adhere to government guidelines.”

Ms Mistry said: “Do your bit. Protect yourselves and protect others!! The virus isn’t spreading, people are spreading the virus.”

More than 8,200 people in the UK have been infected with Covid-19 and 427 have died after testing positive, according to a Reuters tally.

An 18-year-old man diagnosed with the coronavirus died at the weekend in hospital in Coventry, where he was being treated for “significant underlying health issues”.

Professor Kiran Patel, the chief medical officer at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, said the patient had tested positive the day before they died, but “this was not linked to their reason for dying”.

The UK has gone into lockdown amid rising numbers of coronavirus cases, with people told to only leave their house for groceries, to go to work or for health reasons.

Shops, schools, pubs and offices have also been forced to close in an attempt to reduce the spread of the virus and ease pressure on the NHS.

More than 400,000 people have responded to a call for volunteers to help the health service as it battles the outbreak, while the health secretary has said thousands of retired health professionals plan on coming back to work.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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