CHO issues dire warning to unvaccinated as Gold Coast records 23 new hospitalisations

The Gold Coast chalked up 23 new hospitalisations for Covid-19 – an “entire ward” – invoking a strong warning for the unvaccinated, as the state recorded 20,566 new cases.

The Gold Coast recorded 23 new hospitalisations for Covid-19 overnight – an “entire ward” – as the state records 20,566 new cases and another death.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath announced the new record daily total, which included the missing case numbers from Monday.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said the latest death was a man in his 70s who had other health complications. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

The latest Covid-related death was a man in his 70s. There were also 502 hospitalisations and 27 people in ICU.

“They have identified the problem, it has been rectified, it was a software problem to do with an upgrade but they’ve just been able to give us the one lot of data,” Ms D’Ath said.

“We expect that data is not completely reflective of what’s happening out in the community, that some people are still staying home when they’re symptomatic and not coming forward for PCR, or haven’t been able to access a rapid antigen test.”

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said at present there are 27 patients in ICU, as the virus trends north form the Gold Coast into Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

“Six of them are on ventilators, so that’s an increase of just two,” he said.

“In Queensland we have well over 100,000 people infected … and we have just 27 people in intensive care units.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard wound back some of his strong comments about the Gold Coast. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“We had 502 people in Queensland hospital wards as of 7pm (Monday) night. That’s up from 419 the day before.”

“The lesson is the vaccines are working. You can still get sick with this virus … but they’re stopping us ending up getting into that intensive care unit.

Ninety-five per cent of the cases in Queensland are the Omicron variant, Dr Gerrard said, as he warned of an incoming peak.

“The plateau of cases in the hospitals will be a week or so after the plateau in the community,” he said, predicting early February for numbers to subside.

“The next three weeks will be tough. There will be a lot of people admitted to hospital, there will be significantly more intensive care admissions than we are seeing how.”

Dr Gerrard took the sting out of his comments on Monday when he admonished the Gold Coast for low vaccination rates and mask compliance, and its over-representation in ICU admissions, with six unvaccinated wards.

“Gold Coast remains a hot spot, they had an additional 23 admissions to their wards yesterday … a typical hospital ward is somewhere between 20-30 patients,” he said.

“To be honest I think the principal reason (for the high case numbers) is the number of people travelling there from interstate.

“The slightly lower vaccination rate … it’s not terrible on the Gold Coast … that contributes and also we have heard form the police repeatedly that mask wearing is poorer.”

The Gold Coast has one of the lowest vaccination rates in metropolitan Queensland, with only 87.1 per cent of residents double dosed and 90.2 single dosed.

Despite changes to the beginning of the school year, Dr Gerrard urged Queenslanders to continue to live life as normal.

“As much as possible, we should continue our lives as normal. That is plan, that is our way forward,” he said.

“What is happening here is inevitable, we’ve made this minor change to the start of the school year, but as far as possible most of us should be continuing our lives as normal.

“There are some notable exceptions I would suggest, people who are not vaccinated should not be out at the community.

“People at the moment who are immunocompromised and the elderly should be avoiding large crowds … especially if they have not had that booster dose.”

INTERSTATE FIGURES

Down south NSW has recorded 25,870 new Covid-19 cases from PCR tests on Tuesday, as well as eleven more deaths.

There are 2186 people hospitalised with the virus, including 170 patients in intensive care, up from 2030 and 159 respectively on Monday.

It comes as Victoria recorded 37,994 new cases and 13 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.

There are now 861 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 117 in intensive care and 27 on ventilators.

JURY TRIALS SUSPENDED

All new jury trials have been suspended in Queensland as a precautionary measure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Individual courtrooms also have limits on numbers in the public gallery and people must sit at least one seat apart.

Gold Coast legal practitioners were alerted on Tuesday morning that no new jury trials would be held in the supreme or District Courts until February 21.

The decision will be reviewed on February 11.

The Southport District Court is currently still on break until January 17.

Sentences are expected to continue when the court resumes.

The Southport Magistrates Court is currently running but with strict Covid guidelines in place.

Anyone experiencing symptoms is not allowed in the courthouse, everyone must check into the courthouse and into individual courtrooms and the courts must be alerted 24-hours before an unvaccinated person is to attend court.

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