Covid Qld: ‘Escalating rapidly’: Hospitalisations rise as one death, 20k cases confirmed

The number of hospitalisations is “escalating rapidly” in Queensland, the chief health officer has warned, as another death and 20,566 new cases have been confirmed.

The number of hospitalisations is “escalating rapidly” in Queensland, the chief health officer has warned, as the government fires back at claims the pushing back of the return to school date in the state will do nothing other than delay the omicron wave.

Queensland has 20,566 cases of Covid-19, and a man in his late 70s with significant other medical issues died from the virus.

He was believed to have been in a nursing home when he died.

The case total includes those that were not reported on Monday.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said Queensland was expecting a “short, sharp peak” that will see a substantial number of hospital admissions, adding that the Gold Coast was the major hotspot along with the south of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

Dr Gerrard said the number of patients going to hospital, 502, was up significantly from the 419 the day before.

“That is escalating fairly rapidly, and that is exactly what it is expected to do and that will continue, based on our projections until the beginning of February,” Dr Gerrard said.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr. John Gerrard. Photo: Sarah Marshall

He said this was expected and it would continue until the beginning of February, based on the government’s modelling.

Numbers of hospitalisations are already increasing in the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and the southern part of Brisbane, and Dr Gerrard said the next three weeks would be “tense” in health services.

“The plateau of cases in hospital will be a week or so after that plateau in the community,” he said.

Dr Gerrard said that other than some notable exceptions, such as unvaccinated people and those who are immunocompromised, most Queenslanders shouldn’t let the virus disrupt their lives “too much at this stage”.

“I think we should continue our lives as normal, that is our plan, that is our way forward,” he said.

“I think it’s the anxiety of the unknown and it is just another virus.

“There’s nothing mystical or magical about it, it’s just another respiratory virus and in this case we’ve got an effective vaccine.

After the initial anxiety of the pandemic has settled, he said people will begin to have less “fear of the unknown” when it comes to the Covid outbreak.

“I think we should continue our lives as normal, that is our plan, that is our way forward,” he said.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Josh Woning

There are now 32,852 people treating their Covid symptoms at home

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hit back at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments that delaying school would only delay the peak of the Omicron wave, denying they are correct and declaring she “acted on health advice” when the decision was made.

Those comments were reinforced by the Health Minister who said the school delay was also about protecting health workers.

“There’s a lot of staff here with young children, if those young children quickly spread the virus over our peak, that’s more health workers offline,” she said.

There are 2138 health care staff who have tested positive in Queensland’s health system, and 2715 close contacts

Dr Gerrard said the new cases were right across Queensland, but the Gold Coast remains a hotspot.

There are 502 people in ward beds and 27 on ICU, with six on ventilation.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said there were 50 per cent of people eligible for boosters who had not received them.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Ms D’Ath said 6539 children aged 5-11 were vaccinated on Monday at state clinics.

She said walk-ins for children will be accepted for state-run testing clinics but it will be easier with a booking but some pharmacists and GPs were not taking bookings until vaccine doses arrived.

“We do hope the vaccine is supplied by the Commonwealth as quickly as possible,” she said.

There are 12 children who have Covid at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, including one in ICU.

Ms D’Ath said the children were too young to get vaccinated.

She said the state has received more than 400,000 Covid tests from the Commonwealth.

“We are expecting more, but I want to be clear, the number of tests that the Commonwealth has announced, the majority of those are care tests, that’s not what we need, we need rapid antigen tests,” Ms D’Ath said.

She urged the Commonwealth to hand out more RAT tests saying the care tests required staff to do the tests for the individual at testing clinics which doesn’t help lines.

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Ms D’Ath said close contacts were still urged to get a day six test whether it be a RAT test or wait for a PCR.

“We will get to a point that the majority of the population are just having rapid antigen tests at home, we are not there yet,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said under the vaccine mandate in certain industries, the government will be bringing back vaccinated staff on leave and allowing close contacts to return to work to help staff numbers.

“That is an absolute last resort to have unvaccinated people working on the front line,” she said.

She said those who refuse the vaccine mandate will be issued a show cause.

The 90 per cent double dose mark will be hit by the end of January according to the Health Minister.

Ahead of today’s Covid-19 press conference, the Premier was asked about reported Covid-19 parties on the Gold Coast – held to enable unvaccinated people to catch the virus – and said there were concerns in the tourism region.

“We are very concerned with the spread on the Gold Coast,” she said.

“A lot of people are ending up in our hospitals.

“Do not listen to what’s on social media websites – please go and get vaccinated.”

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll added that on top of lower-than-hoped-for vaccination rates on the Glitter Strip, the level of mask wearing was also disappointing.

She said those not wearing masks in the Gold Coast were predominantly people who were visiting the state, rather than locals.

“Can I please ask that you wear your mask or you will be fined, we’re handing out two, three hundred every day. That should not be the case anymore.”

There are now 87.85 people with two doses of the vaccine.