Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate slams ‘Covid parties’ despite calls to let the virus rip through Queensland

A colourful Queensland mayor has slammed people holding ‘Covid parties’ in his city, despite calling for the state government to let the virus rip.

Controversial Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has lashed the “brainless” residents of his city holding Covid parties.

But he maintains concerns over Omicron may be overkill and called for the Queensland government to let the virus rip through the state.

Mr Tate said he was disappointed to hear widespread reports of unvaccinated Glitter Strip citizens gathering to deliberately spread the virus among themselves, a trend that aims to mimic the pox-party strategy for children.

“This Covid party is really a no-go zone,” he told Today on Tuesday.

“They’re all unvaccinated people and … if you’re going to get Covid that‘s the place to go and get it because someone is going to have it and it spreads so easily. It’s a brainless idea and I wish they wouldn’t do it.”

Mayor Tom Tate said he was not concerned that the Gold Coast was responsible for 11 of the state’s 22 ICU patients and also questioned whether fears over the Omicron strain were ‘overkill’. Picture Glenn Hampson

But while savage of this misguided push to achieve ‘natural immunity’, Mr Tate remains adamant the state government should ease restrictions to let the virus more quickly accelerate towards a peak caseload.

He told Today he was not concerned the Gold Coast was responsible for 11 of the state’s 22 ICU patients and also questioned whether fears over the Omicron strain were “overkill”.

The colourful councillor had penned a newspaper column on Monday calling for state government to remove restrictions for vaccinated residents while also letting the virus ‘run its course’ now the borders have reopened.

When asked about the surging virus numbers on the Gold Coast – and the higher proportion of serious cases – Mr Tate said he was not concerned.

Of the 419 people in hospital being treated for the virus, 101 are from the Gold Coast. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

He pointed out that six of the 11 ICU patients were unvaccinated and the remaining five had other complications.

“There‘s other complications, as I said the unvaccinated are going to cop it anyway,” he said.

“So it’s not purely because of Omicron and I’ve asked the question: How dangerous is Omicron in comparison to a normal flu? I still haven’t got the answer back to that because I said in my letter in 2019 we had five deaths a week for influenza, and Omicron we don‘t have any of that, so are we doing an overkill here?”

“I mean it is contagious but if it’s not as virulent, well, let it rip and let’s get to the other side.”

Mr Tate has frequently clashed with state government over its handling of the virus and late last year released his own modelling that he said showed borders should be thrown open earlier than planned.

The Gold Coast came in for a special mention at Monday’s official Covid press conference, with authorities raising concerns about low vaccination rates, poor mask-wearing adherence, and the correlation with increased ICU cases.

Of the 419 people in hospital being treated for the virus, 101 are from the Gold Coast.

Queensland reported 9581 new Covid infections on Monday, a lower daily figure that did not include data from four private testing clinics.