Covid Qld: Omicron cases will be ‘vastly greater’ than flu, CHO warns in response to mayor’s query
Queensland’s chief health officer has spelled out in no uncertain terms just how much more severe the Omicron outbreak is compared to seasonal flu, after Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate criticised the state government for being “asleep at the wheel”.
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Covid-19 is “more severe” and the case numbers brought on by the Omicron variant will be “vastly greater” than the seasonal flu, the state’s top doctor has warned.
It comes as Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate criticised the state government for being “asleep at the wheel” writing to the chief health officer asking for a comparison of Omicron cases and severity versus the flu.
Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard, asked about Cr Tate’s comments, said the question “was not totally illegitimate”.
Dr Gerrard said the number of cases Queensland will see with Omicron will be “vastly greater” than what is experienced in a typical flu season, thus bringing added pressure to the state’s hospital system.
“This is not influenza, it is more severe,” he said.
In the last two weeks Queensland has recorded 21,585 cases of Covid-19, with the state scheduled to hit the peak of the current wave around the end of January or early February.
As of Monday ten people were being in intensive care, with 170 people being cared for in hospital.
During the peak week of Queensland’s horror 2017 flu season, 5663 confirmed cases were recorded and 577 people were being cared for in hospital. 260 people died that year.
Queensland Health data shows the state recorded about 68,000 confirmed cases of the flu in 2019, with a hospitalisation rate of about 4 per cent and 264 deaths.
In 2018, the state recorded 15,685 confirmed cases of the flu, with 11 per cent of those infected hospitalised.
Dr Gerrard said a lot was still unknown about the Omicron strain, with data on the likelihood of hospitalisation among the vaccinated and unvaccinated trickling in day by day.
And while “most of it is good news” the “big problem is the sheer volume of people that are going to get this virus” he said.
“That’s where the big problem will arise. All of us are going to be exposed in the next few weeks.”
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