Darling Downs reaches bleak Covid milestone as death toll mounts

The third wave is shaping to be a killer with elderly people and the unvaccinated clearly in its sights.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk watches Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Peter Aitken: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

We lost our 90th person to the Covid pandemic at the week, according to Darling Downs Health data.

The news comes as Queensland grapples with an infection spike fuelled by mask complacency and Covid fatigue.

Most Covid deaths in the past two weeks in Queensland have been older people who did not have their booster shots, acting chief health officer Dr Peter Aitken said.

Queensland recorded 5804 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours while hospitalisations have climbed to a record 1078.

Nineteen people are in intensive care, with 12 on ventilators. Dr Aitken said 97 per cent of Covid deaths in the past two weeks were people aged over 65, and two-thirds of those didn’t have booster doses.

“Remember the vaccine is about stopping people getting sick,” Dr Aitken said.

Dr Aitken cautioned that the modelling on future cases was based on data that was up to two weeks old.

Queenslanders are urged to wear a mask when they are unable to distance themselves from others in public spaces.

This includes when shopping, working or exercising indoors. Despite the rising cases, the Queensland Government has stopped short of issuing a mask-mandate or a work-from-home order.

Dr Aitken said ICU numbers were lower than previous waves, although cautioned we were still in the early stages of this wave.

It reflects vaccination status of Queenslanders and improved access to antivirals.

“It means it is a less severe disease,” he said.

Still the spike is putting pressure on the health network. On Saturday, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said just a few weeks ago there were 20 times the number of Covid cases reported compared with flu, but that it was now “65 times the number”.

“That is a very big load, that is a lot of patients, and that obviously has an impact on what our hospitals can do,” he said.

There are enough people hospitalised with Covid in Queensland to fill one of the bigger hospitals.

“Imagine taking one of our biggest hospitals out of the system and what impact that would have,” Mr Miles said.

“That’s what they’re experiencing right now.”

Originally published as Darling Downs reaches bleak Covid milestone as death toll mounts