10 deaths, 4919 new Covid cases as Queensland nears Omicron ‘plateau’

Queensland has recorded 10 deaths and 4,919 new Covid cases as chief health officer Dr John Gerrard revealed when Queensland’s Omicron wave will “hit a plateau”.

Queensland has recorded 4919 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon and Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard announced the latest figures at a media conference at Morningside on Saturday.

Ms Scanlon said more than 62 per cent of Queenslanders had received their booster.

Dr Gerrard said four of the deaths were in aged care.

He said 391 people were in public hospitals and 31 in intensive care, with 1507 confirmed cases in school aged children.

Dr Gerrad said one of those who had died were in their 50s, one in their 60s, two in their 70s, five in their 80s and one in their 90s.Two of the victims were unvaccinated while the others were either partially or fully vaccinated, with three having had their booster.

He said there is no substantial increase in school cases since the start of Term 1.

Dr Gerrard said Queensland’s Covid infection rate had stabilised and was expected to “hit a plateau” in the coming days.

“There’s clearly no substantial increase in cases since schools opened last Monday,” he said.

“So far so good in that respect.”

Queenslanders spend between $2,000 and $2,500 each year on food that ends up going to waste: Environment Minister @Meaghan_Scanlon. https://t.co/SS8Ywv0aFy

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) February 19, 2022

He said no announcement on changes to Covid restrictions would be made until next week, but the state was ‘moving forward’.

Asked about the integrity crisis review announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Friday, Ms Scanlon said it was a ‘good step going forward’.

She said the Palaszczuk Government had some of the strongest measures in the country around integrity, including banning property developer donations, and it was one of the reasons she had joined the Labor Party.

She said none of her constituents had raised concerns about integrity but were questioning the Federal Government’s response to the aged care crisis and the lack of a federal corruption commission.

Quizzed about inquiry head Peter Coaldrake being a former Labor Party member, Ms Scanlon said she had ‘absolute confidence’ in him.“He’s well respected by many people across the country and I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job,” she said.

At the conference, Ms Scanlon was also unveiling an Organics Strategy Action Plan to encourage Queenslanders to reduce food waste.

It comes as Annastacia Palaszczuk flagged a policy planning meeting in the coming days with chief health officer John Gerrard that could see the state’s restrictions eased at the end of the month.

“We’ll definitely let Queenslanders know before the end of the month about what restrictions would be eased,” she told reporters.

“I hope to meet with Dr Gerrard over the next couple of days and we’ll work through what those easing of restrictions will look like.”

Authorities in Victoria and NSW have already eased Covid measures but the Premier said the local Omicron wave arrived weeks after cases soared in the neighbouring eastern states.

“That’s a fact that needs to be conveyed to the people of this state but, secondly, we’re now coming off that wave (and) those numbers are coming down,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

The Premier and top doctor will meet in coming days to discuss easing Covid restrictions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

“But don’t forget, still, we have around 40 per cent of our children that are vaccinated and the wearing of masks is helping to stop some of that transmission.”

Dr Gerrard said there had been no increase “at all” in the number of hospitalisations among children since school resumed last week, signalling the return to class had a minimal impact on the Omicron outbreak.

Queensland yesterday recorded nine more deaths related to the virus and 5795 new infections.

There were 912 cases among those aged 5 to 11 reported on Friday and 790 in the 12 to 17 age group.

“We’re heading towards the end of our wave,” he said.

“We’ll effectively come to the end of the wave at the end of this month.

“What happens in the tail beyond that is still somewhat unknown because the world has experienced this Omicron wave almost simultaneously.”

Of the nine deaths reported today, the top doctor said three were not vaccinated and three had received a booster shot.

Six were in their 70s, two in their 80s and one person was in their 90s.

The state’s double vaccination coverage ticked up slightly to 90.5 per cent.