Covid Qld: New CHO says vaccinated will have little to no symptoms

As Queensland enters day two of its new normal with open borders, there is encouraging news from its new chief health officer.

Vaccinated Queenslanders are being reassured they will not be struck down by Covid-19.

On his first day as Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, John Gerrard said vaccinated patients would either have no symptoms or would simply experience a mild cold.

Dr Gerrard said Queensland’s focus would now be less on individual cases and more about trends and monitoring the number of cases in the community and in our hospitals.

“Most patients, the vast majority of people with Covid-19 in the future, will be managed at home, we have systems set up now to start managing patients at home," he said.

Dr Gerrard said it could be two months before health authorities understood the severity of the Omicron variant.

But as Queensland’s first vaccine dose rate marched toward 90 per cent, Dr Gerrard said the state was positioned well to handle the hundreds of cases that would inevitably come.

“I think we can expect hundreds of extra spot fires and they will transmit to others, so I think we will see more than hundreds quite possibly in the next few months,” he said.

“But, can I just point out, I have been seeing Covid cases since the beginning of 2020.

“People who are vaccinated don’t get very sick, they don’t get very sick at all.

“They may get no symptoms, or they may get a mild cold.

“These aren’t the people who will be filling up our hospitals.”

Queensland's newly appointed Chief Health Officer John Gerrard addresses a media conference yesterday. Picture: Dan Peled/Getty Images

Dr Gerrard, who has been treating Covid-19 patients since the beginning of the pandemic, said the original Doherty modelling suggested once the borders opened there would be a lag of several weeks to months before cases surged.

He said while Omicron had been a “curve ball” and health authorities did not yet know where it would sit in the Doherty modelling, higher-than-expected vaccination rates meant Queenslanders would be protected.

Dr Gerrard admitted he thought the state would struggle to get to 70 per cent double vaccinated, let alone 80 or 90 per cent.

Authorities believe the most crucial information about Omicron would come from those who’d contracted it which would take six to eight weeks to collect.

“It will take a while to get meaningful human information in terms of severity and protection from the vaccine,” Dr Gerrard said.

“There is no signal that it is worse … If it is milder that would be Christmas gift.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed one new locally acquired case on Monday – a Sunshine Coast man in his 60s who had visited Byron Bay.

The man is double vaccinated and had visited a number of locations in Sunnybank in Brisbane.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that a positive Covid-19 case from interstate travelled on flight JQ967 from Cairns to Coolangatta on December 10.

The person was one of seven interstate travellers who tested positive in hotel quarantine on Monday. A further two cases that were acquired overseas were detected in hotel quarantine.

It came as the Premier said that throughout the pandemic families have had to deal with circumstances beyond their control.

“This is a special time,” she said, speaking of the emotional scenes at the airport on Monday.

“I’m very proud of the work that every single Queenslander has done.”

But she issued a blunt warning for tourists.

“Tourists coming into the state who are not abiding by the rules would be putting the entire state at risk,” she said.

“It is really important that people coming into our state are checking in (to the app).

“Queenslanders do this all the time.”

She also asked domestic arrivals to abide by PCR testing requirements and to be aware of the vaccination measures that comes into effect this Friday.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll on Monday morning said 23,500 applications for border passes had been lodged from people travelling from hot spots.

Twenty five domestic flights were due to land on the Gold Coast on Monday while 43 were expected in Brisbane.

These numbers are expected to grow in coming days and weeks.

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Originally published as Covid Qld: New CHO says vaccinated will have little to no symptoms