Chief Health Officer says AFL grand final crowd will depend on COVID cases

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young says the size of the crowd allowed at the AFL grand final at the Gabba next month will depend on the level of COVID-19 community transmission in Queensland at the time.

A 30,000 crowd for the historic AFL grand final at the Gabba next month will depend on how well Queensland can get its latest coronavirus cluster under control.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said on Thursday she would make a decision about the size of the crowd for the October 24 game based on whether it was safe to have 30,000 at the ground.

That would depend on how much community transmission of the virus was happening in Queensland at the time.

AFL grand final 2020: Queensland government refuses to reveal cost to taxpayers

Qld scored AFL Grand Final for $5m cheaper than other bidders

The size of the crowd at the AFL grand final next month will depend on COVID-19 case numbers. Picture: Dan Peled

“We should be able to have that 30,000 but that 30,000 is not an absolute given,” Dr Young said.

“The plan is, depending where we are in Queensland on October 24, we’ll make a decision whether it’s safe to have that 30,000.”

Under the Gabba’s COVID-safe plan, crowds of up to 20,000 people have been allowed.

“That’s been done multiple times and very, very safely,” Dr Young said.

She said she was confident of having crowds of at least 20,000 at the game unless the state had “a complete disaster in terms of case numbers”.

“And I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to go up to that 30,000,” she said. “I genuinely think that we’ll be able to manage this. We have got really good systems in place.”

This year will be the first AFL grand final played outside of Melbourne.

Queensland announced two new cases on Thursday, both believed to be linked to the ongoing Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and Queensland Correctional Services Academy cluster.

“We’ve started to see some control over this current cluster,” Dr Young said.

“We’ll keep on testing and we’re testing large numbers of Queenslanders, which is excellent, so we’ll make sure that we’re not missing any chains of transmission out there.”

Originally published as Chief Health Officer says AFL grand final crowd will depend on COVID cases