Health Minister Yvette D’Ath announces no new Covid cases in Queensland

Queensland has recorded no new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours as the state nears the 70 per cent double dose target, which will see the borders reopen to people in Covid hotspots.

Queensland has recorded no new Covid cases in the past 24 hours as the state nears the 70 per cent fully vaccinated target which will trigger the reopening of borders.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said it appeared Queensland would hit the 70 per cent target well before the expected date of November 19.

A total of 81.11 per cent of Queenslanders have had their first doses while 69.39 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Once Queensland hits 70 per cent double dose, which could be as early as Sunday, people can enter the state from a hotspot via air and go into 14 days home quarantine.

They must be fully vaccinated and have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of arriving in Queensland.

Ms D’Ath said once the double dose target was hit, Queensland’s border pass system would go live.

“We’ve had three days in a row of more than 17,000 vaccinations,” Ms D’Ath said.

“We are so close to hitting that 70 per cent double dose rate.

“But 70 per cent is not the end goal, we want to hit 80 per cent and we want to keep going.”

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Ms D’Ath said she was confident in the system which would allow fully-vaccinated people to enter Queensland.

She said it would be automatic and people would not have to wait days for their negative test and vaccination status to be displayed.

Ms D’Ath said there were lots of avenues to punish people who tried to breach the system.

She said there was no evidence of large-scale fraud or attempts by people forging vaccination documents.

“If at any point someone does not validly apply, and they provide false information, they will get fined,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said if there was evidence of GPs attempting to assist people in forging documents to lie about their vaccination status there would be multiple avenues of punishment, including re-evaluating their medical registration and also potential criminal charges.

“There will be checks on your documents, checks at airports and checks while you’re in quarantine,” she said.

Speaking about the operational system for travellers required to demonstrate a negative test result and vaccination status, Ms D’Ath said people would not be able to game the system, and if they tried they would get caught.

Ms D’Ath was confident Queensland’s home quarantine system would work.

“Queenslanders know the risk,” she said.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath.

Ms D’Ath said she wasn’t concerned about compliance with the non-vaccinated being refused entry after December 17.

“We do not expect businesses to police visitors and enforce compliance, the obligation is on patrons not the business,” she said.

Ms D’Ath called people to get tested if they have any symptoms at all, particularly on the Gold Coast where there remains two mystery cases.

Ms D’Ath also urged Queenslanders to come forward and get vaccinated, with 58 schools running vaccination hubs across the weekend.

Acting chief health officer Dr Peter Aitken said testing rates had doubled on the Gold Coast in recent days.

“The increase in the first dose is very important and the closer we get to 90% the better,” he said.

“The other big message is if you are in crowded places, particularly on the Gold Coast, please wear a mask.”

Dr Aitken said it was encouraging that 81 per cent of Queenslanders were fully vaccinated.

He aid while he wanted to wait for the end of the 14-day incubation period for the positive cases on the Gold Coast, he was confident the situation was under control.