Queensland Covid restrictions will only be reintroduced when ‘immediate threat’ to safety: CHO

Amid a spike in Covid case numbers, Queensland’s chief health officer has revealed what it would take for restrictions to be reintroduced.

Only an “immediate threat” to the safety of Queenslanders will result in the reintroduction of Covid-19 restrictions despite the chief health officer declaring a new Omicron strain would become dominant in weeks.

Covid-19 cases have spiked across the state this week as Queenslanders become “relaxed” about living with the virus, which authorities are warning is “as dangerous as it’s always been”.

Queensland recorded a 15 per cent increase in the number of Covid-19 cases over the past week, with 8881 new cases and nine deaths reported on Tuesday.

The figure is the largest number of daily cases the state has seen since February 2, but is below the peak of the Omicron wave in January where numbers were doubling every two days.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard. Picture: Liam Kidston

Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said the new virus substrain, BA2, was “a bit more transmissible” than the original Omicron variant and was becoming the dominant strain worldwide.

However, Dr Gerrard anticipated Queensland hospitals would cope with an increase in case numbers but said there was not enough modelling about whether hospitalisations would jump.

He said authorities were mainly concerned about people with severe disease requiring hospitalisation and declared there were no plans to reintroduce any restrictions amid the new strain.

“A legal restriction from the chief health officer is a very serious thing to undertake,” he said.

“I will only do that if there is an immediate threat to the safety of Queenslanders.”

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland advocacy manager Amanda Rohan said businesses were crying out for a review into the vaccine mandate, which was promised when the state reached the 90 per cent target.

“Now is the time for government to level the playing field and bring businesses, their staff, customers and communities still operating under the vaccine mandates into line with those businesses operating without any restrictions,” she said.

Dr Gerrard said there were “active discussions” about mandates every day.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Liam Kidston

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has pleaded with parents to get children aged 5-11 vaccinated, with that rate hovering at only 43.15 per cent.

“We know the majority of young children are not going to get seriously ill but we have a vaccine there and why take the risk that your child could be that one that ends up needing hospitalisation,” she said.

Queensland Tourism and Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe has also tested positive to Covid-19.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland was “seeing a little spike in Covid cases” and revealed more younger people needed to get the jab.

“I’d like to see the number of parents getting their primary school students vaccinated increase,” she said.

“We are still lagging behind some of the other states.”

Almost 40 per cent of eligible people who were due for boosters have not come forward yet.