Annastacia Palaszczuk rules out mask mandate as Covid hospitalisation spikes

Annastacia Palaszczuk has ruled out any return to mask mandates in Queensland, but encouraged people to take precautions amid a spike in hospitalisations in the state.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has ruled out any return of a mask mandate in Queensland, even as hospitalisations from Covid-19 spike in the state.

Ms Palaszczuk said it was expected that more than 600 people will be in state hospitals with Covid-19 by Tuesday.

There are 522 people in hospital with the virus on Monday.

“That’s a pretty big jump in one day,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said the number had dropped down to the 400s in recent months.

The Premier urged Queenslanders to remember that ‘Covid is out there’ and to carefully monitor for symptoms during the coinciding flu season.

She said 1600 health staff were currently at home sick with either the flu or Covid and Winter served as a “timely reminder” for people to get their vaccine booster shot.

“If you have not had Covid, please take care but also too, as a general rule of everybody, if you are sick, stay at home,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Please err on the side of caution.”

When asked whether mask mandates had been “ruled out” Ms Palaszczuk said “definitely.”

“Definitely ruled out, we’re not doing a mask mandate but there are discussions happening about urging people in certain situations to wear masks but there are ongoing discussions about that,” she said.

Queensland chief health officer Dr John Gerrard on Friday said there was a national “school of thought” that mask mandates should be introduced.

Dr Gerrard said the current Covid wave would get “significantly worse in coming weeks”.

He said the current strains of the virus were evading both vaccine and natural immunity, but said that being vaccinated was still the best option to avoid serious and deadly symptoms, pointing to current hospitalisation statistics.

“We are seeing the establishment of a new wave of Covid, these BA. 4 and BA. 5 sub-variants that are causing a significant wave at the moment.”

“Infection with this virus will be very common, you will know a lot of people infected with this strain of the virus in the coming weeks.”

“We always knew that winter would be bad but this variant is being particularly nasty.

“The thing with this strain of virus is it’s evading immunity, whether it’s quite naturally or through vaccination.”

Originally published as Annastacia Palaszczuk rules out mask mandate as Covid hospitalisation spikes