Teacher who lost 15kg in ICU with Covid issues stark warning to Australians

Richard Murgatroyd (pictured) 27 days after he caught Covid at an AFL game at the MCG

An Australian teacher just released from intensive care after testing positive for COVID-19 has spoken about his harrowing ordeal, admitting he thought he was going to die. 

Richard Murgatroyd, 51, who works at Bacchus Marsh Grammar, about an hour north-west of Melbourne, caught the virus after he went to a footy game at the MCG with a friend on July 10 – a day Victoria had zero cases.   

After going to the Carlton v Geelong match, he said he felt fine and went to work on the following Monday but on the Tuesday he noticed a tickle in the back of his throat. 

Mr Murgatroyd, who had received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, went to get a Covid test as a precaution and while waiting in line his footy mate told him his apartment building had been listed as an exposed venue. 

The Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong had been visited by two Covid infected removalists from Sydney. The residents in the apartments were plunged into isolation for 14 days during the state’s fifth lockdown.

Mr Murgatroyd said on day seven of the virus, he had to call an ambulance and was transferred to hospital where he was put into intensive care.   

‘I was really scared because I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t get my breath back, so I knew it wasn’t good,’ he told ABC radio.    

His first two days in the ICU were a fog and on the second night he was gripped with fear that he would die in hospital. 

‘A doctor about 3am in the morning held my hand and looked me in the eye and said: “You’re strong enough. We’ll get you through this”.’ 

He said despite being healthy and going to the gym regularly, the virus had wiped him out. 

In addition to losing 15kg, he said the simple task of pulling himself up from the bed requires at least a few minutes to recover and catch his breath.   

Mr Murgatroyd said he struggled to comprehend going from being at the AFL game to fighting for his life.

’10 days later I was in intensive care. The sheer random nature of it,’ he said.   

The fit and healthy teacher (pictured before Covid) said he was shocked at how ‘random’ the virus was and urged the public to get vaccinated as soon as they were able 

Mr Murgatroyd works at Bacchus Marsh Grammar (pictured) and his case sparked an alert for the school 

His harrowing story comes as Victoria braces for a rise in Covid cases on Saturday, and high-risk exposure sites continue to climb.

Contact tracers are racing to get ahead of the Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong clusters.

The state recorded six new locally-acquired coronavirus cases on Friday but case numbers are expected to surge into the double digits on Saturday, the Herald Sun reported. 

Health officials are concerned the virus might have already escaped the western suburbs with fragments being found in sewage in other parts of the city.  

Covid testing commander, Jeroen Weimar, warned the number of exposure sites will continue to rise. 

‘We did not go into lockdown because we were worried about a few cases in the western suburbs,’ he said on Friday. 

‘We’re worried that it might be seeding out quite widely; we’re worried it might be going to places we haven’t yet seen.’ 

Victoria has been promised another 150,000 Pfizer vaccine doses by the Federal Government within the next month to help deal with the latest outbreak and its sixth lockdown.  

The state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said there had also been ‘unexpected detections’ of Covid fragments in sewer readings across the city.

The system services residents of Balwyn, Camberwell, Canterbury, Mont Albert and Surrey Hills.

‘Anyone who lives, works or has visited the above suburbs in Melbourne’s east between 26 July and 4 August is urged to watch for the slightest of COVID-19 symptoms and get tested as soon as possible if any symptoms develop,’ Vic Health said.

He caught the virus from a friend who lives in the Ariele apartments, which were  placed into isolation in mid-July (pictured) 

The apartment building (pictured) was exposed after two removalists with Covid attended units there

Breakdown of new Vic Delta outbreaks

HOBSONS BAY CLUSTER – FIVE CASES

* A female teacher in her 20s at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina. She is thought to be the index case and lives in Hobsons Bay with her husband.

* Husband of teacher, a man in his 20s who works at Caroline Springs optometrist and plays for Newport Football Club.

* Three family members of the man, all live in a different house in Hobsons Bay. Two of three cases previously announced.

CITY OF MARIBYRNONG CLUSTER – FOUR CASES

* A man in his 20s who lives in the Maribyrnong area and works at a factory in Derrimut. He is the index case.

* His housemate who worked as a contracted cleaner at Richmond’s Epworth Hospital

* Two contacts of index case from another household in Wyndham Vale, including a student at Warringa Park specialist school in Hoppers Crossing

At least 10,000 primary and secondary contacts are in isolation in Victoria.

A female teacher in her 20s at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina is thought to be the original transmitter in the Hobsons Bay outbreak which is now at five cases. 

A man in his 20s who works at a factory in Derrimut is thought to be the first infectious person in the Maribyrnong cluster, which has grown to four cases. 

‘Victoria is in a precarious position when it comes to where this particular series of outbreaks are,’ Health Minister Martin Foley said on Friday.

‘It is in all of our hands. We have driven down this Delta variant and we can do it again.’

An alarming 10 new high-risk exposure sites were listed by Victorian health officials on Friday including two schools, a medical centre, a pathology clinic and a leisure centre. 

Patients who visited the Active Medical Centre in Caroline Springs on August 2 between the hours of 2.15pm – 3.40pm must immediately get tested and quarantine for 14 days.

The same rules apply for anyone who attended Dorevitch Pathology Collection in Caroline Springs on August 2 between 2.15pm and 3.40pm.

Anybody who visited Bayfit Leisure Centre in Altona North on August 2 between 8.54am and 10.30am must also get tested – including anyone who entered the 25m swimming pool from 8.55am to 10.15am or the female changerooms from 9.45am to 10.30am.

All three venues are Tier 1 exposure sites which means those who visited the locations during the times listed must immediately isolate, and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure. 

Contact tracers are on Friday chasing the movements of a man aged in his 20s from Maribyrnong, in north-west Melbourne, after he tested positive to Covid-19 (pictured are Melbourne residents on Friday) 

Bayfit Leisure Centre’s 25m swimming pool and female change rooms have also been listed as Tier 1 exposure sites in Victoria (pictured) 

VICTORIA’S NEW EXPOSURE SITES 

Anyone who has visited a Tier 1 exposure site during the times listed must immediately isolate, get a COVID-19 test, and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure.

Altona North – Bayfit Leisure Centre – Anyone who entered the pool or used women’s change rooms –  August 2 between 8:54am and 10:30am

Caroline Springs – Active Medical Centre – August 2 between 2:15pm and 3:40pm

Caroline Springs – Dorevitch Pathology Collection – August 2 between 2:15pm and 3:40pm

Anyone who has visited a Tier 2 exposure site during times listed should urgently get a COVID-19 test and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Altona North – Bayfit Leisure Centre – August 2 between 8:54am and 10:30am

Hoppers Crossing – Warringa Park School – August 4 between 8:30am and 4pm

Hoppers Crossing – Warringa Park School – August 5 between 8:30am and 4pm

Hoppers Crossing – Warringa Park School – August 3 between 8:30am and 4pm 

Werribee – Heathdale Christian College – August 5 between 8:30am and 4pm

Werribee – Heathdale Christian College – August 4 between 8:30am and 4pm

Werribee – Heathdale Christian College – August 3 between 8:30am and 4pm 

Tarneit – Oporto in Tarneit Shopping Centre – August 2 between 5:30pm and 6:30pm

Tarneit – Western Fresh Fruit & Veg – Wyndham Village Shopping Centre – August 3 between 4:15pm and 4:45pm

Tarneit – Aldi – August 4 between 4:45pm and 5:30pm

Tarneit – Coles – Tarneit Shopping Centre – August 2 between 6:25pm and 6:55pm 

Truganina – United Petroleum – August 2 between 5:10pm and 5:40pm

While in New South Wales, the outbreak of the Delta strain emerging from the eastern suburbs in mid-June refuses to ease. 

New South Wales reported a record 291 new locally-acquired cases, with at least 96 of those in the community while infectious.

A woman in her 60s who acquired the virus while a patient at Liverpool Hospital has also died.

The unvaccinated woman was infected by a health care worker at the hospital last week while she was being treated for another problem.

She is the second person to die connected with the outbreak at the hospital.

The new cases in NSW on Friday smash the previous record of 262 infections that were reported on Thursday. There were 110,000 tests conducted  

Health workers at the Roselands Shopping Centre in Sydney administer Covid tests (pictured) 

A large ball of fire is captured in the background as chaotic anti-lockdown protests erupted in Melbourne on Thursday night (pictured) with hundreds taking to the streets

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday warned the escalation in daily infections would continue in the next week.

The NSW premier all but conceded the state would not reach her earlier target of zero cases circulating in the community.

Ms Berejiklian said the case numbers and behaviour of the Delta variant meant it was ‘pretty obvious’ that ‘we now have to live with Delta one way or another’.

But she insisted that returning to zero ‘has to be our aspiration’. 

The premier again pointed to vaccination as a way out of the crisis.

The more people who are vaccinated, the sooner the state will be able to live more freely, Ms Berejiklian told reporters.

Some 44.66 per cent of NSW residents over 16 have been jabbed at least once, with a record 93,626 doses issued in the state on August 5.

Police patrol Victoria Park in Glebe in Sydney on July 31. Health authorities believe the Melbourne man could have caught the virus after meeting with relatives who had recently been cleared from quarantine in NSW

The new cases come as the Newcastle and Hunter regions join Greater Sydney in lockdown and begin the first of their seven-day stay-at-home orders

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk