Qld Covid numbers ahead of ‘super Pfizer weekend’

Queensland has recorded one new local Covid case - a person in quarantine linked to the St Thomas More College cluster - as the state prepares for a vaccination blitz this weekend.

Queensland has recorded one new local Covid case - a person in quarantine linked to the St Thomas More College cluster - as the state prepares for a vaccination blitz this weekend.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the new case was a household contact of someone connected to the Sunnybank cluster, who has been in home quarantine for their infectious period.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said unfortunately the new infection meant that that family would have to restart their 14 days in quarantine.

She said some 1000 people were in quarantine because of the latest outbreak and she thanked those families for keeping the rest of Queensland safe.

The new case comes as all Queenslanders aged over 12 will be able to walk-in and get a Pfizer jab this weekend under a plan to supercharge the state’s vaccination rate.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the plan to provide Pfizer jabs for all at the state-run vaccination hubs as part of their “super Pfizer weekend”, after revealing over 60s would also be eligible for Pfizer from Saturday.

Ms D’Ath urged unvaccinated Queenslanders to roll up their sleeve and get the jab this weekend.

“We want to make sure people are getting choice,” she said.

“We know people want to get vaccinated but there’s some who haven’t yet.”

Dr Young said now was the time to really “ramp up” the local vaccination rate.

She again warned the virus could not be held back forever and said there are no longer priority groups for the vaccine and pushed for everyone to get the jab, including those in remote areas.

“It’s access... It’s much harder for someone to travel a distance to get vaccinated than it is for someone in Brisbane,” she said.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

While Ms D’Ath said the Moderna vaccine was arriving next week for GPs, she said Queensland has been getting less supply of Pfizer than the per capita allocation.

Although the vaccination rate from Queensland Health has significantly increased, the rates from GPs has decreased due to supply being redirected to NSW, she said.

The state government has been assured that this supply should be replenished some time in November.

Ms D’Ath said 25,288 vaccinations had been administered in the past 24 hours, meaning 58 per cent of eligible Queenslanders had now received their first dose.

She said Queenslanders now have more vaccination choice, with GPs offering Pfizer and AstraZeneca, pharmacies offer AstraZeneca or Moderna and Queensland Health will have Pfizer, AstraZeneca and potentially Moderna, pending Commonwealth approval.

“It’s about time everyone gets the choice of different vaccines that are available to them,” she said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said it had been incredibly busy at the border but compliance had been good overall.

Ms D’Ath said the government was looking at the protocol around freight drivers to ensure they can travel freely around the country without putting people in risk while they’re not driving and out in the community.

It comes as a number of infected interstate drivers have travelled to Queensland and been in the community while unknowingly infectious.

“We absolutely need our freight drivers around the country... But we do want to look at the movement of drivers and the protocol around them quarantining,” Ms D’Ath said.

Ms D’ath also gave more details about the new compliance check trial where a link will be sent via a text message to people in home quarantine, who will then have 10 minutes to respond.

A response to the link, informs the government that the person is actually at the residence they should be at.

“They will not know when the message is coming and they must have a smartphone,” Ms D’ath said.

Ms D’ath assured the text would come at a reasonable time of the day and if someone didn’t have a smart phone they would continue using phone calls via a landline.

The compliance check will be trialled with people currently in home quarantine, including boarding school students who are returning home to Queensland from NSW.