• last year
More than 200 people have presented to Victorian emergency departments with asthma-related symptoms over the past 24 hours -- more than five times the normal amount. Thunderstorms across the state triggered the high-to-extreme pollen count.

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00:00 We already had those issues contacting hospitals and people were really struggling to reach
00:06 out to loved ones and see how they were.
00:08 But now on top of that we had thunderstorms triggering major hay fever and asthmatic events
00:13 across the state.
00:14 In Melbourne obviously weather changes very quickly.
00:17 It's four seasons in a day as everyone says.
00:19 Yesterday afternoon it was high 20s and sunny one minute and then just about two minutes
00:24 later thunderstorms and raining the next.
00:27 Now in this past 24 hour period from late Cup Day to yesterday afternoon we did see
00:32 that really big increase in that high pollen count that affected hay fever sufferers and
00:37 asthmatics.
00:39 Yesterday afternoon in particular was really bad in terms of that high pollen count really
00:43 circulating in the air.
00:45 Now on top of that of course with those Optus outages Melbourne's and Victoria's emergency
00:49 response and hospitals really suffered across the state.
00:53 Many people were struggling to reach loved ones in hospitals and also we heard from the
00:58 Victorian Ambulance Union yesterday morning as well indicating that emergency workers
01:03 were struggling to reach patients who had called through on an Optus network in a non-emergency
01:08 related event and they were needing to call them back.
01:11 They weren't able to do that in some instances.
01:13 So we already saw that kind of large impact on Victoria's health system yesterday and
01:17 this was just another thing to add on top of that.
01:20 As a result of those storms and rain and increase in that high pollen count yesterday 231 people
01:26 presented to Victorian emergency departments in that 24 hour period.
01:31 Now that's five times the usual average on any given day which is extremely high in terms
01:36 of that high pollen count.
01:38 Hospitals in Casey, Dandenong, Monash and Frankston in Melbourne's South East took up
01:43 more than half of those cases.
01:45 Of course that was because we saw that rain concentrated in the south of the state.
01:49 So really high pollen count and lots of asthmatics suffering in that area.
01:53 If we take a look at the epidemic thunderstorm asthma risk map we can see the northern and
01:58 north east parts of the state today still remain with a moderate risk for asthma.
02:03 However other parts of the state remain with a low risk.
02:06 This does also move to a low risk for all parts of Victoria for tomorrow.
02:10 But the health department has warned that there could still be potentially hay fever
02:14 and asthmatics suffering from conditions today as those conditions do persist in those northern
02:20 parts of the state.
02:22 Now it is important to note that the epidemic thunderstorm asthma risk forecast does take
02:27 effect from October to the end of December.
02:29 So we are likely to see potentially a few more episodes coming through that could impact
02:34 hay fever sufferers and asthmatics.
02:36 And the health department is really monitoring this situation to make sure it doesn't develop
02:41 and get worse.
02:42 Of course we have seen many asthma events over the past few years have impacted those
02:46 sufferers of those conditions.
02:48 Namely in 2016 a massive thunderstorm and asthma event that occurred which three and
02:55 a half thousand Victorians were admitted to hospital and sadly ten people died from that
02:59 event.
03:00 So the health department doesn't take these forecasts lightly.
03:03 They are really monitoring this situation and they are urging those who suffer from
03:07 hay fever and asthma to really monitor the forecast and the risks and alerts they are
03:11 posting to their website as we do know that Melbourne weather does really change very
03:16 quickly and they are asking them to monitor this situation as things could really change
03:21 quickly.
03:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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