NEW DETAILS: West Brisbane coronavirus cases revealed

New statistics released today by the Queensland Government show how many confirmed COVID-19 cases there have been in Brisbane and where people acquired the virus. Here’s how the west and south-west suburbs have been impacted.

There have been 408 cases of coronavirus in the Brisbane City Council area according to figures just released by the State Government.

The statewide figures are broken down into local government areas, with Brisbane City Council at the top of the list followed by Gold Coast 189, Moreton Bay 95, Sunshine Coast 70, Logan 42, Ipswich 27 and Redland 20.

There have been much-higher figures of people in self-quarantine, with 55,533 statewide and 2971 still active.

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Of Brisbane’s cases 319 were acquired overseas, 62 were acquired locally but with the contact-point known and 19 acquired locally with an unknown source.

State wide the age group with the most cases is 20-29 years with 236 cases.

The numbers in the most at-risk age groups are:

60-69 years 166

70-79 years 100

80-89 years 15

The southwest has been quick to respond to helping older and vulnerable people in the Covid crisis, with reassurances from community leaders after Inala was named on a list of the most at-risk suburbs.

Premier and MP for Inala Annastacia Palaszczuk said Inala “barely needed to ask” because help was always there.

Last week, health authorities named Inala as second on the list of Queensland suburbs with the most people at the highest possible risk in the event of a coronavirus infection.

Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases at the Wesley Medical Centre Dr Paul Georghiou said people aged over 60 with chronic health conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, were at greatly increased risk of complications and death if they were infected.

Meanwhile, University of Queensland scientists have been doing their bit to help tackle the virus.

Professor Paul Young’s team is one of a small group of researchers around the world working on possible COVID-19 vaccines and have made good progress thanks to their unique rapid vaccine development technology.

UQ scientists, in partnership with CSIRO, also made a significant breakthrough recently when they found traces of coronavirus in sewage at Luggage Point wastewater treatment pant.

A proof of concept test was conducted earlier this month which they hope will result in nationwide testing of wastewater plants to track the disease’s spread.

“This is a major development that enables surveillance of the spread of the virus through Australian communities,” Director of UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, Professor Kevin Thomas, said.

The university has also fast-tracked graduation of final year nursing students so they can start in hospitals from September, taking pressure off experienced nurses.

Thirty nine final-year nursing students will start at Princess Alexandra Hospital on April 27.

And up to 250 UQ students could be on the job in other major southeast Queensland hospitals by September.

In Inala, Brisbane City Councillor (Forest Lake) Charles Strunk moved to ensure the older residents in his ward were okay during the coronavirus crisis.

Cr Strunk sent a letter to more than 2000 of his most at-risk residents, all aged 70 or older, explaining the service available to them with phone numbers as the contact point, rather than internet addresses.

He said he became aware that older resident were often poorly connected into internet services and may be missing out on updates and information on how to cope with self-isolating during the coronavirus.

Cr Strunk said the letter was “basic information” but presented in a way designed to provide a note of comfort and reassurance to the over-70 age group.

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Also at Inala, instead of providing about 20 hampers for needy residents in a week, when job losses related to the coronavirus lockdowns hit homes in the southwest, Inala Citipointe was asked for about 200 hampers by residents facing an uncertain future.

Two major churches in Inala and Forest Lake faced a rapid increase in calls for welfare help as the impact of coronavirus shutdowns and job losses spread through the community.

Citipointe Pastor Tim McDonald said the demand for hampers had initially jumped and had then settled down.

“We have just finished setting up a new building called our marketplace on Freeman Rd that contains an op shop and grocery outlet, which offers cheap or free groceries to those in need.

LNP MP for Moggill, Christian Rowan, is also doing his bit by increasing practice hours.

Dr Rowan, a GP who practices on the southside and is also an addiction specialist at the Wesley and St Andrews, said he was working an extra 10-12 hours a week, mainly on weekends.

He has personally had to swab suspected COVID-19 patients but said the risk was something all health professionals accepted.