Queensland records 22 new Covid cases while three cases of Omicron confirmed

Queensland has recorded 22 new Covid cases including 18 that were infectious in the community and three confirmed Omicron cases, with authorities urging Queenslanders to mask up.

Twenty-two new cases of Covid have been detected in Queensland with 18 having been infectious in the community as the outbreak escalates ‘hour by hour’.

Three cases of Omicron have been confirmed

The spike in cases has led authorities to urge Queenslanders to wear a mask whenever in heavily populated indoor areas like retail shopping centres, on public transport or high risk settings like hospitals and aged care facilities.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said the new cases were expected while a surge in Omicron cases was likely within weeks and the current outbreak was escalating ‘hour by hour’.

“There will be more cases tomorrow,” he said.

He said fatal cases were likely especially among the unvaccinated.

“The number of hospitalisations has not grown to huge numbers in NSW but we are obviously concerned,” Dr Gerrard said.

“We are expecting this surge within weeks in Queensland.

“It is likely we’ll see fatal cases, particularly among the unvaccinated.”

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the majority of the new cases were from interstate.

They were detected in Brisbane’s south, the Darling Downs, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, West Moreton and Wide Bay.

Queensland now has 67 active cases while 18 of the 22 new cases were infectious in the community for 1-7 days.

One of the positive cases visited an aged care facility in Holland Park.

Ms D’Ath said staff were now being tested.

Queensland now has three confirmed cases of Omicron including the man who visited Townsville.

He had limited exposure besides the airport.

Chief health officer Dr. John Gerrard. Picture: Nigel Hallett

A further Omicron case was a woman from Rochedale South who had been in Newcastle and was infectious in the community on December 12 and 13.

The third case was an international aircrew member who had not been in the community.

Ms D’Ath said they were prepared for more Omicron in the community.

“It is now not about the number of cases, but the number of people who end up in the ICU,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said Queensland would get to 90 per cent double dose in January.

She advised people to wear masks whenever people are in heavily populated indoor areas like retail shopping centres, on public transport or high risk settings like hospitals and aged care facilities.

“Please, get out your masks and start wearing them anywhere in Queensland just to protect yourself and reduce the risk of the spread of this virus,” she said.

“The cases will come, but it’s about slowing the spread and we can do that with masks and of course getting vaccinated.”

Dr Gerrard said the growing case numbers across the state were expected and would continue to grow.

He said 12 of today’s cases were linked to interstate travel – all were vaccinated.

“We want to slow the spread of the virus to give people the opportunity to get their third dose of the vaccine,” he said.

He said all patients in Queensland who had Omicron weren’t unwell.

Dr Gerrard said additional cases of Omicron were being identified hour by hour and that more would be announced tomorrow.

He said if people wore masks it would slow the spread of the virus.

While 12 of the cases were linked to interstate travel, Dr Gerrard said one was locally acquired and a link had not been identified.

Two cases are known contacts of another case or cluster – one on the Gold Coast and one in the Darling Downs region.

One was vaccinated and one was partially.

Three cases are linked to overseas travel – one in home quarantine and two in hotel quarantine. One was Doha and two from Africa.

Four cases are still under investigation.

He said that on a “small positive note”, all of the Omicron patients were not sick at all and were fully vaccinated.

“Obviously these are small numbers and we need to see what happens with people who are vulnerable and older.”

Dr Gerrard said that health authorities “could not work on the assumption” that Omicron was less severe.

“We still have to treat this Omicron strain very seriously,” he said.

He said that most Omicron patients in Queensland had not had any symptoms.

The Omicron patients were only in hospital for quarantine purposes and not because they needed hospital care.

Dr Gerrard said there was “no simple definition” on what defined a close contact.

“Usually a close contact is someone who has been face-to-face with a positive case for more than 15 minutes,” he said.

“We have experts in the field who look at these issues on a case-by-case basis.

“It depends on the time they were with the patient, the environment – it’s not a simple two line answer.”

Dr Gerrard said that contact tracing locations will “almost certainly not” continue to be uploaded to the Queensland Health website once the state hits thousands of cases a day.

Originally published as Queensland records 22 new Covid cases while three cases of Omicron confirmed