‘We just won’t know when the next outbreak is going to be’: Qld Premier

Queensland should get used to months of rolling lockdowns to burn out Covid cases before they get out of control, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warning people to be “under no illusion” there won’t be more outbreaks.

Queensland has been warned to brace for months of rolling lockdowns to burn out Covid cases before they get out of control as the southeast today wakes to the toughest mask restrictions ever implemented in the state.

Residents in the 11 local government areas released from an eight-day snap lockdown on Sunday afternoon will have to wear masks at all times in high schools and workplaces, even when social distancing is possible.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned the state should get used to months of rolling lockdowns, warning people to be “under no illusion” there won’t be more outbreaks.

As southeast Queensland came out of lockdown, Cairns residents were ordered to stay at home for three days to deal with a troubling case of a taxi driver who had been contagious in the community for 10 days.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at Parliament House to provide a Covid-19 update. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Infectious diseases specialist Associate Professor Paul Griffin said people should not be waiting for a “freedom day”, like that celebrated in the UK, but should get used to continuing restrictions to deal with the Delta strain.

The warnings came as Queensland recorded 9 new cases, 7 of which were linked to the Indooroopilly cluster.

An eighth was a mystery case in Cairns that has plunged that city into lockdown and a ninth was a Gold Coast case that is under investigation after one positive test and two negatives.

Ms Palaszczuk said southeast Queenslanders should be “very pleased” to be leaving lockdown and be going into a fortnight of continued, but lessened, restrictions.

Under the new restrictions, people must continue to wear masks at all times unless a person is alone or in their household group, exercising vigorously, or seated and eating.

They must also be worn at all times at workplaces, even when social distancing is possible, unless in an office alone, and by all teachers and high school students.

Groups of up to 10 are allowed to gather at homes and parks, and 20 people are allowed at weddings and funerals.

Businesses and venues are capped at 50 per cent capacity.

“I think Queenslanders should be under no illusion that we just don’t know when the next outbreak is going to be,” the premier said.

“So that’s why it’s absolutely imperative to wear your mask, if you’re sick go and get tested and, when it’s your turn, go and get vaccinated.”

Covid testing at 59 Gailey Road, Taringa. Pic Peter Wallis

In a piece for The Courier-Mail today, Ms Palaszczuk said Delta’s rapid escalation had “brought misery and death across NSW and seen the return to lockdown in Victoria”.

“These are examples to us of what we don’t want to happen and what we must strive to prevent.”

Ms Palaszczuk’s comments came as she completed a two-week hotel quarantine after she and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner travelled to the Tokyo Olympics to secure the future Games for Brisbane.

chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said lockdowns would be needed for as little as one community case when the risk was high enough, with leaders agreeing the measure was the best one to quash the virus until vaccination rates reached a 70 per cent target.

That’s expected to be reached in about November, but will depend on vaccine supply.

Dr Young said her decisions around lockdown would always depend on factors, but said the virus had changed since last year, and tougher measures were likely here to stay for several months yet.

Asked what other levers she could pull in the case of an uncontrolled outbreak in Queensland, she said she had already instituted the toughest lockdown to date last week in the southeast where no visitors were allowed.

chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young at Parliament House to provide a Covid-19 update. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“So it’s not really about us having levers to pull, it’s about people complying with the levers we’ve got and people did comply and you can see that (with the results),” she said.

Dr Griffin said people should realise that there wouldn’t be a return to normalcy in the current environment.

“I don’t think there‘s going to come a day where we’re going to see a freedom day,” he said.

“I think that’s unrealistic to expect.

“I think that concept of returning to complete normality is one that is not realistic or safe or ideal in any way.”

He said people would need to ensure their alert levels remained high, and that complacency didn’t creep back in.

“It’s easy to dismiss the snotty nose in kids but at the moment we have to assume it’s Covid rather than the other way around (and get tested),” he said.

Operation Covid Shield boss Lieutenant-General JJ Frewen has said it will be “mathematically” possible for the nation to reach 80 per cent coverage by the end of the year.

“I think we‘ll have the supply. We’ll have the distribution notes, but it really is about people in Australia coming forward and coming forward with some urgency to get vaccinated,” he said.

There is a significant increase in the vaccine rollout planned from next month, informed by modelling from the Doherty Institute, as more supplies become available.

The Doherty Institute modelling expected 80 per cent of the population to be vaccinated by the end of November.

Mass workplace vaccinations, drive through facilities, jabs offered at shopping centres and places of worship and even school programs are expected from December.

The modelling revealed that even if an 80 per vaccination rate is met, about 1300 people would die over six months in an out-of-control outbreak with minimal restrictions.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said, pending Therapeutic Goods Administration Approval, 1 million doses of Moderna would arrive in September, then 3 million a month for October through December.

“That‘s on top of the very significant increase, the effective doubling of Pfizer from the million (doses) a week towards the 2 million a week,” Mr Hunt said.