Qld Covid-19: Annastacia Palaszczuk announces new Chief Health Officer

Annastacia Palaszczuk has named the state’s next Chief Health Officer while defending the requirement for a costly Covid test for visitors to the state. Queensland has again recorded no new cases of coronavirus.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced Dr John Gerrard will become Queensland’s new Chief Health Officer.

It comes as Queensland recorded zero new cases of Covid-19 overnight in another “double doughnut” day and as the State Government remains under fire for the decision to force people entering Queensland to undergo a $145 Covid test.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath on Sunday saying the cost should not trump the health response.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Dr John Gerrard who will become Queensland’s new Chief Health Officer in December. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Ms Palaszczuk today said she “made no apologies” for inflicting mandatory PCR testing.

“I want to remind everyone that they are also required in other states,” she said.

“This is a measure that has been put in place and will remain in place on advice from the Health Minister,” she said.

“The PCR test is the most accurate.”

Ms Palaszczuk said Dr Gerrard would become the state’s Chief Health Officer from the middle of December.

She said he had played a “crucial” role tackling Covid-19 in Queensland across the past two years, particularly in the Gold Coast University Hospital infectious unit.

“ … He has seen first hand and treated some of the very first patients that caught Covid in Queensland.”

She said he was also “instrumental in dealing with the Covid outbreak with the Diamond Princess”.

“The Gold Coast should be very proud that Dr Gerrard has stepped up to take on this role,” she said.

He said it was a “profound honour” to take on the role vacated by Dr Jeannette Young.

“It is a deep and concerning responsibility to take on at this time,” he said.

“I am heartened and the responsibility is lighter because of the actions of Queenslanders”.

An internationally respected and awarded researcher and clinician, Dr Gerrard is best known for his groundbreaking work in the emergence of AIDS in Australia and confronting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.

He was the medical specialist lead in two separate international Covid-19 responses, one aboard the Diamond Princess in Japan in February 2020 and the other in the Dutch Antilles in early 2021.

And he was the first in Queensland to treat a patient with Covid-19 – becoming instrumental in designing the Gold Coast University Hospital to manage patients with highly infectious diseases like Covid-19.

Dr Gerrard praised Queensland’s “extraordinary” response to Covid-19 and likened it to the work of previous CHO Dr Young.

“What we have seen in Queensland is quite extraordinary,” he said.

“We have been able to keep Covid-19 out of Queensland for two years.

“This is something that has not been achieved anywhere else in the world.

“Much of this has been due to the former Chief Health Officer and followed by Peter Aikten.”

Ms Palaszczuk touched on the anti-lockdown protest that drew thousands in Brisbane’s CBD on Saturday.

“You will see that the measures we have put in place are absolutely reasonable,” she said.

“Queenslanders have come out in the millions to get vaccinated and we have to do everything we can to keep them safe.”

She said that people want to be able to “walk into venues” and “know they won’t get Covid”,

denying that Queenslanders were being “left behind” due to the strict vaccine mandate.

“We have a plan and I am sticking to that plan,” she said.

“I am asking Queensland to stick to that plan.”

“I think a cautious approach is the right approach.” The Premier said Queensland was likely on track to reach 80 per cent double dose a week earlier than expected, and would be hitting 90 per cent in January.

There are 4 active cases currently in the state.

A total of 6550 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours and 10,960 vaccines were administered on Sunday and 84.55 per cent of eligible Queenslanders have received their first dose and 73.34 per cent are fully vaccinated.