Chief Medical Officer expects cases to slow due to tough border and quarantine restrictions

Cases doubled in days, schools went student free and thousands of people lost their jobs - it has been a devastating week caught in the grips of the coronavirus crisis. This is what Queenslanders can now expect in coming weeks.

CHIEF Health Officer Jeannette Young said the spread of coronavirus should slow in the wake of tough new border and quarantine restrictions in Queensland.

“We would expect that, that’s why we’re doing it. Because the vast majority of our cases have been related to people coming in through the border,” she said.

But Dr Young said there would still be cases of community transmission.

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Queensland's chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young expects the spread of coronavirus to slow in coming weeks. Picture: Dan Peled

“That is what will happen with this virus,” she said.

“But by all of these measures we will blunt it down so we can provide the health services that every Queenslander needs.”

Dr Young’s comments come after Queensland recorded 62 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the state’s total to 555.

It follows a doubling of coronavirus cases in just five days - from 221 on Saturday last week to 493 on Thursday.

Dr Young said there was sufficient PPE for frontline workers at Queensland’s public hospitals and that ventilators were being built around the country.

“We don’t have enough PPE for people to waste it, so we don’t have enough to go and give every Queenslander because they don’t need it, they wouldn’t know how to use it and there’s a risk that they could actually inappropriately use it and harm them less and it’s not necessary,” she said.

Dr Young said hotel arrangements would be in place by 11.59pm Saturday for when people arrive into Brisbane from overseas.

That follows Prime Minister Scott Morrison announcing new quarantine measures for Australians returning from overseas.

They will have to be quarantined in hotels and other accommodation facilities to enforce the 14-day self-isolation period.