Cairns Covid-19: Omicron sub-variant BA. 2 causing sharp spike in cases

A sharp spike in cases across Cairns is keeping health professionals on their toes, with the new Omicron sub-variant being tipped to become the most dominant strain of the virus. LATEST NUMBERS

A SPIKE in Covid-19 cases across the Cairns and Far North is keeping health professionals on their toes, with the new Omicron sub-variant being tipped to become the most dominant strain of the virus.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service’s Covid response director, Dr Donna Goodman, said while daily case numbers were still a fraction of the 1500 experienced at the peak of the Omicron wave, the new sub-variant BA. 2 was causing a sharp jump in infections.
There were more than 500 new infections recorded across the CHHHS on Wednesday with the daily average sitting at around 250 a day.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service health incident controller Dr Donna Goodman (left) and nursing director Erin Howell inside the Cairns Showgrounds testing clinic. The site will be shut down on Sunday March 27. Picture: Brendan Radke

“We aren’t out of the woods yet,” she said.

“Our booster rate is currently just over 60 per cent, so that means there are still many people at risk of infection.

“We don’t know what to expect when international flights start touching down at Cairns Airport, so in any case, we still need people to get tested if they have any symptoms of COVID-19 and isolate immediately until you return a negative result.”

Dr Goodman said they were seeing definitive spike in cases among school-aged children, citing low vaccination rates among kids under 16.

A woman waits to be tested at the Cairns Hospital Covid and fever testing clinic. Picture: Brendan Radke

More than 93 per cent of residents across the CHHHS region have been double vaccinated.

“Anecdotally we have a lot of people off work, not because they have Covid but because their children have Covid,” she said.

“The schools are having to manage that very closely.”

There are currently 41 active Covid cases in Cairns at the moment the bulk of which are being managed at home.

The region has recorded 43 Covid-related deaths.

Ms Goodman expected the new Omicron strain to take over the older version “in the space of weeks”.

Queensland Health's Covid-19 testing clinic at the Cairns Showgrounds will be closed to free up staff as more people turn to RAT tests. Picture: Brendan Radke

“Generally what happens with a new variant if it is more virulent than the previous it will overtake,” she said.

“So you would expect the vast majority of the cases will become the new variant over a space of weeks.

It comes as the CHHHS announced it will close its Cairns Showgrounds PCR testing clinic on Sunday as more people switch to rapid antigen tests.

Services will be centralised to the Covid testing site at Portsmith.

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Originally published as Cairns Covid-19: Omicron sub-variant BA. 2 causing sharp spike in cases