Chief health officer now is ‘time for a pandemic’ in Queensland

Queensland is expected to record tens of thousands of new Covid-19 cases soon as CHO explains why now is the ‘best time to be experiencing it’.

Queensland is expected to record tens of thousands of daily Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks but the state’s top doctor insists now is the “best time to be experiencing it”.

Chief health officer John Gerrard has repeatedly stressed new infections would be rampant as the state eases into a new phase of managing the pandemic.

And as cases soar near the border with NSW he again rejected the notion of putting the brakes on health policies, hinting the infectious nature of the new strain meant it was too late to slow down.

The top doctor instead suggested Queenslanders incorporate various measures to reduce exposure to the virus, including the use of masks and working from home.

“We need to keep moving on, we need to move on because we are not going to stop the Omicron virus,” Dr Gerrard told reporters.

It’s time to keep moving forward, Dr Gerrard said. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“There are some things we could do to slow it a little bit, obviously masks are critical (and) I think we’ll increasingly message people in January, when the cases are at a very high rate, if you can work from home that would be a good thing to start thinking about.”

Queensland recorded 2222 new infections and as cases soar in coming weeks, the top doctor said authorities will resist imposing lockdowns.

Dr Gerrard noted Queensland was yet to experience major spread in the community since Covid-19 was discovered two years ago but declared on Thursday “this is the time to be having a pandemic”.

“If we’re going to experience this pandemic, then January is probably the best time,” he said.

“All of Queenslanders have had the opportunity to get vaccinated, it's warm, the schools are on holidays but it will be something we haven’t experienced before.”