Covid: Teen who had virus urges youngsters to get jabbed

A teenager has urged other young people to get Covid vaccinations after she spent a week in hospital fighting for her life.

Maisy Evans said scans made her lungs look like those of "an 80-year-old who smokes 20 cigarettes a day".

It comes after figures obtained by BBC Wales show more than 600 children and teenagers in Wales tested positive for Covid-19 while in hospital this year.

It is not clear if they were admitted because of the virus or another reason.

The Public Health Wales statistics show more than half (370) of the Covid hospital admissions for under 20s were registered since the beginning of the September school term.

Also, about half of these were under the age of nine.

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Maisy, who spent more than a week as a Covid patient at the Grange University Hospital near Cwmbran, in Torfaen, said she had feared for her future.

The aspiring medical student from Newport was initially treated in the hospital's high dependency unit in August this year.

"I was fighting for my life in hospital. It was really scary," she said.

"There was a clot on my right lung and there was a lot of pneumonia caused by Covid.

"The scans looked awful, I looked like an 80-year-old who smokes 20 cigarettes a day."

Maisy said her lungs were inflamed, and there was scar tissue and fluid.

Maisy Evans is urging people who are eligible for a vaccine to get jabbed

"I think my experience has been an eye opener for people who know me. I want to remind people my age that Covid is not a joke," Maisy said.

"I was 17, I was fairly fit, lived quite a healthy lifestyle and I was in hospital fighting for my life."

She said that some days she just feels "ill, tired, in pain, not wanting to do anything apart from sleep".

Maisy Evans was treated Covid-19 at a hospital in south Wales

"They don't know how the scar tissue will cope, how my lungs will be in future," she said.

"There's a concern also about whether other organs such as the brain and heart may be affected.

"It is scary but that's the reality. Covid is something to worry about, definitely."

Maisy was treated as a Covid patient in Cwmbran's Grange hospital in August

Three months on, Maisy said she still feels "weak" from the virus, and is urging all those eligible to take-up the offer of a vaccination.

The data, obtained by Newyddion S4C, show 611 young people aged 19 and under in Wales were hospitalised with coronavirus between January and November of this year.

The figures suggest that, from April to 28 November, 0.74% of children aged 0-9 with a positive Covid test went to hospital - the figure for those aged 10-19 was 0.35%.

This compared to 2.66% for those aged 20 and over.

The data may include people with a positive Covid test, but treated for something else.

Two under-14s have died with coronavirus in Wales, both in September.

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Official figures show that while more than 80% of those aged 65-69 have received three doses of a Covid vaccine, just 3% of those aged 12-15 have received two doses.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Eluned Morgan said walk-in boosters would be available to specific groups of people.

A Welsh government spokeswoman said the offer of two doses of a Covid vaccine for children aged 12-15 for their vaccine was under way.

"We are still waiting for JCVI advice on vaccinating under 12-year-olds," she said.

Meanwhile, First Minister Mark Drakeford wants to offer a Covid booster to all adults by the end of the year.

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