Covid Gold Coast: Mayor blames government as city reports half state’s ICU admissions, quarter hospitalisations
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has doubled-down on his criticism of the state government’s Covid restrictions, which he says are to blame for the city’s low vaccination rate.
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GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has doubled-down on his criticism of the state government’s Covid restrictions, which he says are to blame for the city’s low vaccination rate.
A defiant Cr Tate again took aim at the state government again on Monday after penning a controversial editorial calling on it to treat Covid like the flu, give back freedoms to the vaccinated and stop changing the rules constantly.
Despite Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard on Monday named the Gold Coast as the southeast location with the worst double-vaccination rate, worst for mask compliance and highest number of ICU patients.
Cr Tate threw blame for the figures on the state.
“The Gold Coast is the physical gateway to all of Queensland and the number tourism destination for Australia, so the volume of people visiting or transiting through our city will always see Gold Coast statistics skewed to some degree,” he said.
“Current Gold Coast hospital admission numbers will reflect this high visitation including spectators at recent major sports events.
“I believe the apathy among some Gold Coasters in not getting vaccinated can be sourced back to the stop-start regulations being imposed, then changed, almost daily.”
Mr Tate said he had made more than 70 public statements urging the public to get vaccinated in the past year and reiterated calls for greater transparency.
“I continue to hear of deep frustration among the community about ever-changing rules and what people want is reliable data,” he said.
“Without data, rumours flare up and take hold. I strongly support the CHO’s stance on letting Covid sweep across the state.
“I am still awaiting for data from the State on the potency of Omicron when compared with both the Delta strain and the common flu.
“Once I have that data, we can further inform residents who are asking similar questions.”
Mr Tate has recently queried if it’s “an Omi-con” in terms of the variants severity.
Gold Coast worst for ICU, mask and vaccination
The Gold Coast is under fire as the worst place in the state for Covid-19 compliance, as the state records under 10,000 cases due to a “software” error.
This comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement, with 9581 new cases including 3714 positive rapid antigen tests, 419 in hospital and 21 in ICU.
The lower case numbers are due to testing numbers missing from four private pathology clinics due to a computing error.
“It is a fact, in the south east, the Gold Coast is under the state average … it’s not far behind … but as a tourist hotspot, I would have loved to see the Gold Coast at 95 per cent (vaccinated),” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“If you are unvaccinated, please go and get vaccinated.”
Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said the Gold Coast has among the highest number of hospitalisations, as the state government expects numbers to “escalate significantly” this week.
“The hospitalisation rate, the overall ward rate, is increasing steadily … sometime this week we expect that number to escalate significantly,” he said.
“A substantial number of cases are happening on the Gold Coast … about a quarter of the ward admissions (101) are currently on the Gold Coast suggesting there is a significant surge of the virus on the Gold Coast.”
Of the 11 people in intensive care on the Gold Coast, six are unvaccinated and are presenting “classic Covid pneumonia” symptoms.
“Of the five others, they were double vaccinated but all had complex other medical issues that were mixed in with the cause of their admission.
“It’s hard to believe in my mind, how you can be unvaccinated at this stage in a pandemic.”
Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said 189 masks were handed out by police yesterday – 168 of those on the Gold Coast.
“As you’ve heard from the Chief Health Officer, there are lower levels of vaccination and increased illness on the Gold Coast so our message for all our community and particularly on the Gold Coast, please wear your mask.”
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said there are four labs that have been unable to give the state government all of their numbers and said software was at fault.
This comes as the Gold Coast confirmed its first Covid-19 related death over the weekend, and the state recorded almost 30,000 cases across the two days.
Down south NSW has reported 20,293 new Covid-19 cases and 18 more deaths on Monday.
It is the state’s deadliest day of the pandemic so far, beating the record of 16 deaths confirmed just a day earlier.
There are now 2030 people in hospital with the virus, with 159 in intensive care, up from 1927 and 151 patients respectively on Sunday.
Victoria has recorded 34,808 new Covid infections as the rampant spread of the virus across the state continues.
Monday’s figures also reveal two more people have died.
The new case figure is down on the 44,155 reported on Sunday.
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Originally published as Covid Gold Coast: Mayor blames government as city reports half state’s ICU admissions, quarter hospitalisations
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