Early days of COVID-19 pandemic were ‘madness’, says Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles

‘Most nights I fall into bed exhausted’: Queensland’s Health Minister has given rare insight into the handling of the coronavirus crisis and reveals what still keeps him awake.

“IT was late one Wednesday in January when I was asked to sign a document like no other.”

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said the early days of the COVID-19 breakout were madness.

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Add in a quarantined Hollywood legend, some tense moments with the Chinese Women’s football team and the “terrifying” possibility of mass infection, it’s fair to say Mr Miles had his hands full.

“The first modelling I saw was horrific — 37,500 dead in Queensland alone, 1250 diagnosed every day.,” Mr Miles said.

“Our hospitals would have looked like they do in the UK or the USA today.”

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles during a coronavirus (COVID-19) press conference with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. (AAP/Darren England)

The state has since limited the spread of the virus despite a steep climb in the number of infected in mid to late March.

As of today, there are 50 active cases, eight of whom were in hospital. Six Queenslanders lost their lives from COVID-19.

Back in January though, the situation was far from stable with the state government preparing for the worst as news from around the world painted a grim picture.

“Those ‘crisis’ and ‘extreme’ scenarios still keep me awake,” Mr Miles said.

“We had a plan for them, but I’d hate to be back there now.

“We rushed to first understand the virus that was taking on the world, then prepare our hospitals for what we thought was inevitable.”

The “document like no other” he was asked to sign back in January was the Public Health Emergency Declaration Order.

It provided sweeping powers to public health officers to detain citizens, order they go to a certain place, even order they undergo a medical examination, such as a nasal swab.

“An order like this had never been signed to apply to the whole state before,” Mr Miles said.

“I never thought I’d be faced with a situation so dire, so concerning that I would support an order like this.”

Legally, the order could only remain in place for seven days.

“Because its powers were so extreme, nobody ever thought it would be needed for longer,” Mr Miles said.

A few days later, Mr Miles visited Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to discuss what they were seeing overseas.

“I asked to bring emergency laws to the parliament that would allow us to extend the emergency order for three whole months,” he said.

Queensland Health staff have worked tirelessly to help limit the spread of Coronavirus.

“She agreed, we introduced the laws that week and passed them within a few hours.”

With emergency laws in place, Mr Miles’ attention was then directed at preventing a potential international incident with China, sort of.

The Chinese national women’s football team was in Brisbane preparing for a World Cup qualifying match.

Before arriving in Australian they had previously been training in COVID-19 ground zero — Wuhan, China.

The team was quarantined in a hotel but, being professional athletes, they wanted to leave their rooms and keep fit and active.

“’Can we at least let them swim in the hotel pool?’ Came the request from the management of the Chinese national women’s football team,” Mr Miles said.

“I never thought I’d be discussing the daily habits of the Chinese national women’s football team, but here I was.

“They, and the hotel, were fantastic though and we all made it through, but there were some tense moments.

“In the end, they and the Matildas drew the match against each other. Probably the best result diplomacy could have hoped for.”

A trip down to the Gold Coast then took a strange turn, as Mr Miles was due to meet with a top infectious disease expert.

Though he was told to wait until the following day, as the expert was meeting with “someone very important”.

The world soon learned that Hollywood legend Tom Hanks had been infected with the virus while filming at the Gold Coast, and was in quarantine hospital with his wife.

Instagram image of Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks while in hospital for Coronavirus

“The next day, that ‘someone important’ was tweeting from inside the Gold Coast University Hospital,” said Mr Miles, who due to privacy laws is not allowed to name him.

“It was possibly the most famous COVID patient in the world that day.”

Fast forward to today, and many of the strict restrictions that have helped stop the spread of the disease begin to ease.

“Right now, the models say we have miraculously survived a very small first wave,” Mr Miles said.

“It’s been 98 days since our first case. Most nights I sleep well, falling into bed exhausted.

“I’m still terrified of an outbreak in an aged care facility like is happening in Sydney right now.

“Then there are the nights when I look at the news interstate or overseas and I’m struck by how bad it could have been.”