Queensland records zero new cases of coronavirus

Queensland has recorded no new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, but Health Minister Steven Miles says the state’s own modelling predicted a very different outcome from the pandemic.

QUEENSLAND has only 12 remaining active cases of coronavirus, after the state recorded no new cases in the last 24 hours.

Health Minister Steven Miles said there had now been several days with zero reported cases.

Queensland’s total remains at 1057.

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Mr Miles said there had been 111 restless nights since the pandemic started thinking about its impact.

Across Queensland, 1039 cases have recovered while 12 remain active.

Four people are being treated in hospital with one of those in intensive care on a ventilator.

Mr Miles said initial modelling showed Queensland’s COVID-19 death toll to be more than 20 times greater than the number of total cases that have been recorded.

Meanwhile, authorities feared thousands of coronavirus infections would emerge every day after a sick nurse continued to work at a Queensland nursing home.

Mr Miles revealed the scale of the emergency authorities were braced for in North Rockhampton.

“We were preparing for thousands of positive cases every day,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.

Two investigations are underway after the nurse kept showing up for work at the North Rockhampton Nursing Centre while she had symptoms and before she received coronavirus test results.

Health Minister Steven Miles says authorities will continue to test people who came in contact with a Rockhampton aged care nurse who had coronavirus. Picture: News Corp/Attila Csaszar

Remarkably, none of the hundreds of residents and staff from the centre have returned positive tests since the drama emerged last week, nor has anyone else the nurse had contact with in the community.

But they face ongoing tests, every four days, until the two-week incubation period has passed.

“Certainly I thought that there would be positive results in that first batch,” Mr Miles said.

“But it is too soon to be relieved. We need to keep monitoring the situation.”

The government sent a rapid response unit to the city when it learned about the situation.

A team of 26 nurses arrived from Brisbane on Monday, to ensure everyone linked to the sick nurse has appropriate care as they serve time in isolation and endure new rounds of tests.