The Victorian government has stepped up its coronavirus advertising to focus on real-life stories of suffering, similar to smoking and road toll campaigns.
As the state braces for scores more deaths in the coming weeks after five people died on Saturday, the government has released multi-language advertisements for television, radio and social media illustrating the devastating effect coronavirus can have on families and younger people.
Michael, who features in Victoria's new coronavirus ad, said the virus was 'like drowning' before entering an induced coma for 72 days.
In one, Michael, a middle-aged coronavirus patient, details how doctors believed he was going to die as he spent 72 days in an induced coma in hospital. Michael explains that while he was asleep, his wife contracted coronavirus and likely passed it on to her elderly mother who soon died.
“It was like drowning," Michael says of the virus.
"COVID is real, it is very real."