Qld Covid-19: Deadliest day as 24 more deaths recorded

Another 24 people have died with Covid-19 in Queensland - more than half of them in aged care — as the state records its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic.

Queensland has recorded its deadliest day during the Covid-19 pandemic with 24 people losing their lives.

“This is a really hard day, particularly of course, for family and loved ones of the individuals,” Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said in Cairns.

The people who died were aged between 50 and 100.

One person was in their 50s, two in their 60s, two in their 70s, 11 in their 80s, seven in their 90s and one aged over 100.

Two were unvaccinated and six had a booster. Sixteen of the number were in aged care.

Queensland has now hit the 90 per cent double dose vaccination target.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

Another 6902 new cases have been reported this morning, with 44 people now being treated in hospital intensive care units.

There are 534 children who have tested positive on PCR results.

“We don’t envisage that this jump overnight is directly related to school yet,” she said.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said it was expected ongoing cases would appear in schools over the coming weeks.

“There was quite substantial transmission in children between 5 and 17 three weeks ago,” he said.

He said most of the cases were “very, very mild” but said those with respiratory problems needed to continue getting tested.

Ms D’Ath said each school would deal with potential outbreaks with the assistance of the Public Health Unit on whether or not students would be considered close contacts or not.

“Those things are determined on a case-by-case basis,” she said.

The opening of the international borders isn’t expected to impact cases, Dr Gerrard said.

“We think by the end of February it will be somewhere between one to two million Queenslanders who’ve been infected by this virus so far,” he said.

He said that it would be a large number of infections, with some Queenslanders not even knowing they’ve had the virus.

Dr Gerrard said it was “not true” that Omicron was less severe than other strains, and high vaccination rates were the reason the state hadn’t seen more hospitalisations and deaths.

He said there were “no major restrictions” on Queenslanders at the moment.

“Obviously we continue to look at them as we get into winter, but the restrictions of Queenslanders at the moment are relatively quite mild,” he said.

Dr Gerrard urged people to get the vaccine, particularly if they were waiting for Novavax. “The vaccines we have are extremely safe and extremely effective and we’ve got billions of people to prove that,” he said.

More than 2100 health staff are still either isolating or quarantining, with the overall number affected declining.

Ms D’Ath said that there is still a small percentage of health workers waiting for their exemption applications to be processed and are still on full pay.

“We do have to ensure due process and for those who have exemption applications that are outstanding they are either on leave or allowed to work from home,” she said.

She said the government doesn’t control the timeframes for when these applications will be processed.

Ms D’Ath said that returning to work, school and opening international borders will see transmission occur.

She said the measures currently in place have worked towards reducing hospitalisations and deaths.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland would not move to a triple-vaccination requirement for tourists unless ATAGI recommended it.

While Victoria has suggested travellers may need to be triple-vaccinated before entering the state, Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland was sticking with its double dose requirement.

“If ATAGI changes that we will absolutely follow suit with Victoria,” she said.

“That is not the case at the moment.

“Until I hear any more, the double vaccination is sufficient.

“We know the tourism industry has been going through a tough time.”

Of the 24 deaths reported, 16 were in aged care.

The Premier thanked Peter Dutton for sending defence troops to help with aged care.

Ms D’Ath said the state government welcomed the federal government’s decision to have defence force soldiers assist at aged care facilities.

“Our defence force are just members of the community... I have no doubt that they will go in and do it in a very compassionate and caring way,” she said.