COVID-19 Qld: Health authorities sweat over cases as lockdown deadline looms

Queensland health authorities are buoyed by the low case numbers on Wednesday but the premier insists the lockdown decision hasn’t been made yet.

Queensland reported just two cases of community transmission on Wednesday, igniting hopes Brisbane’s three-day lockdown will be eased ahead of Easter.

But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insists the Sunshine State is not yet in the clear, revealing a decision on the lockdown will be announced on Thursday at 9am.

“The fact we do not have any unlinked community transmission in the southeast or in our state is absolutely encouraging news,” she told reporters on Wednesday morning.

“Fingers crossed, all will be looking good for Easter.”

“But like I’ve said, it depends on the testing rates again, so if we see very good testing rates across Queensland and we don’t see any underlying community transmission, the signs for Easter are looking positive.”

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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a jump in cases would likely lead to the extension of the three-day lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

It was previously reported the premier and the state’s health authorities would make a decision on the lockdown Wednesday evening but chief health officer Jeannette Young said testing rates for the 24-year period will need to be considered.

She said the low number of new cases on Wednesday was a positive but warned it was “only one day of encouraging results”.

“We need to get more results from today, so it is absolutely extremely important that anyone with any symptoms gets tested,” Dr Young said.

The positive messaging around Wednesday’s low transmission figures is at odds with various infectious disease experts who warned an extension of the lockdown past its scheduled end on Thursday evening was more than likely.

University of South Australia’s leading epidemiologist, professor Adrian Esterman, agreed the case numbers on Wednesday were “crucial” to containing the outbreak, warning the situation in Brisbane would “get worse before it gets better”.

“(Queensland Health) has to assume it’s out there … They have to do everything they can to make sure it doesn’t go any further,” he said.

These views were echoed by other infectious disease experts, with Griffith University’s Nigel McMillan who previously warned a similar jump to Tuesday’s eight new cases would be enough for authorities to pull the trigger.

But Professor Peter Collignon, another infectious disease expert at the Australian National University, said the “really critical thing” is whether the new cases are known and already in isolation.

“In other words, cases in the community that are not linked,” he told Sunrise. “They are people that are not in quarantine.

“If all the cases you find — as is often the case in the last outbreaks we have had in Melbourne, Sydney — if they’re all in quarantine, then extending a lockdown for everybody doesn’t help much.

“But if you actually find mystery cases, unlinked cases, that is when there is a need to continue the lockdown particularly if you have got large numbers and your contact tracers are having difficulty getting on top.”