CQ records 53 new cases as Qld Health scales back statistics

Queensland Health is no longer releasing every exposure site to the public. Here’s why:

Member for Gladstone Glenn Butcher has revealed the number of new Covid cases for New Years Day.

Of the 53 new cases in Central Queensland, 20 were from the Rockhampton Region, five from the Banana Shire, six from Livingstone Shire, 19 from the Gladstone Region and three interstate.

As of 8am on January 1, two patients were in hospital.

Queensland Health will not continue providing detailed information about individual cases going forward, saying that it would ‘pull our contact tracers off the important public health work they are doing identifying exposure venues.’

This means it’s unlikely that specific case numbers will be publicly reported for Central Queensland in the future.

However, any ‘heightened or unique’ risks to the community will be raised in press conferences, social media and public health alerts.

“However, as case numbers grow – into the hundreds and potentially thousands per day – it won’t be feasible to continue to attempt to contact trace every contact of every case, particularly in lower risk situations,” Queensland Health said.

“Similar to other jurisdictions, it may also mean not every exposure venue is published on our website.”

Locations may not be added to the website if every person can be contacted directly.

But, the current number of active cases in each LGA are still publicly available.

There are currently 3 active cases in the Banana Shire, 11 in the Central Highlands, 27 in the Livingstone Shire, 66 in Rockhampton and 46 in Gladstone, as at 7pm on December 31, 2021.

Forty quarantine notices are active in Central Queensland.

Originally published as CQ records 53 new cases as Qld Health scales back statistics