Darling Downs Health chief Annette Scott says region has likely seen peak of Covid outbreak

While testing numbers in Toowoomba have declined, health authorities remain hopeful the Darling Downs has seen the peak of the latest Covid outbreak.

As active Covid cases begin to plateau in the Darling Downs, health authorities are “cautiously optimistic” the region has seen its peak of case numbers from the Omicron outbreak.

Overnight the region recorded 223 active cases, a fall from yesterday’s total of 253 and the month’s highest recorded total of 360 recorded on January 25.

Despite the falling active case numbers, deaths continue to rise with 10 people now dead in the Darling Downs region from Covid.

Darling Downs Health chief executive Annette Scott said the health system was coping remarkably well with the Covid case load.

“The advice from the chief health officer (Dr John Gerrard) is that some parts of Queensland have already seen the peak, and we are close to potentially our peak at the moment. We’re anticipating we’re not going to see much greater numbers than we’ve already seen,” she said.

“I’m cautiously optimistic and if the modelling is reasonably correct, we will be in a reasonably comfortable position.”

Annette Scott Darling Downs Health Chief Executive. Friday, January 28, 2022. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Ms Scott said with active daily case numbers hovering between 220 and 350 for the past week, she didn’t anticipate any dramatic increase in the near future.

“We know that potentially there’s more (active Covid cases) out there but they haven’t presented for testing,” she said.

“Our testing site has dramatically reduced in demand, (on Friday) we saw around 380 people for PCRs and about 280 for RATs, and that’s significantly reduced numbers to what we saw between Christmas and New Year.

“I would suggest that the reason we’re seeing not as many people come through is not because there’s a wait, but a reflection of less concern in the community or maybe less symptoms.”

Ms Scott reminded anyone in the community with any Covid symptoms to get tested, with a third testing lane at Baillie Henderson Hospital significantly reducing wait times for people attending the testing clinic.

However, it is recomended for people to visit the testing clinic later in the day, as wait times are greater in the mornings.

Baillie Henderson Hospital COVID-19 testing site upgrades have improved the flow of cars. Thursday, January 13, 2022. Picture: Nev Madsen.

With 14 people currently in Toowoomba hospital receiving treatment for Covid-19, Ms Scott said the health system was well positioned the handle the case load.

“Against the original modelling it’s a much reduced number to what we expected,” she said.

“We’ve got them cohorted in a separate area so we’re very mindful to ensure the non-Covid patients coming through the hospital are as safe as possible and we manage those patients along with Covid care protocols.

“We have capacity to further increase beds in the Covid ward at Toowoomba Hospital but we’re not going to at this point because it doesn’t look like we’re actually going to need those beds.

“We have got one ward that’s cohorted and separated from the rest of the hospital and that’s not full. We’re managing pretty well, and we’re prepared and ready within a very short time frame to create a whole ward but we’re just not needing it at the moment.”

Toowoomba boy Charlie Wilson, 11, was one of the region's first children aged between five and 11, to get their Covid-19 vaccination at the Clifford Gardens clinic. Health authorities are reminding parents to get their child vaccinated before the return of school.

Reflecting on the two years since Queensland recorded its first positive Covid case of the pandemic, Ms Scott said there had been a lot learnt by the health system.

“It has been a long two years, given my previous role was incident commander for the pandemic it’s been a really interesting journey,” she said.

“I feel privileged that in this world that I had the opportunity to actually not only live but lead through a pandemic.

“I’m extremely impressed but how not just locally but as a health system collectively have responded to this. We are the lead agency and we’d never been in that position before with a global pandemic so I think we stepped up to the mark.

“We’ve done a lot over the past two years and hopefully what we’re seeing by way of effective response now is from the learnings of the past two years and an indication of how well prepared we were.”