Health Minister Yvette D’Ath – who was herself tested and isolated in the midst of the recent lockdown – announced the so-called ‘zero day’ on Twitter this morning. There were no community-acquired, or hotel quarantine, cases to warn of.

“Keep up the good work – get a test if you’re not well, carry a mask with you and wear it when required, keep up good hand hygiene and social distancing,” D’Ath tweeted.

The number of active cases has fallen back to 70, however the number of tests has also fallen from record highs last week to 5,348 in the last day of the Easter long weekend. Authorities will be hoping the testing rate lifts again to provide some reassurance that the outbreaks have not continued infecting people. There are still more than 2,000 people in isolation or quarantine as others travel for the school holidays.

Two separate outbreaks involving the Princess Alexandra Hospital, and initially sparked by travellers carrying the more contagious UK variant, led to a three-day lockdown of greater Brisbane. The lockdown was lifted on Thursday, after two days and almost 70,000 tests helped contact tracers identify the venues, and people, most at risk.

The outbreaks were challenging for authorities to manage given the central role of the hospital, where the infectious diseases ward has since been taken offline as a precaution, and the already large number of beds taken up by returned travellers. Queensland Health is still assessing the implications.

Restrictions on travel from PNG – which have seen Queensland reduce its intake of travellers by 25 per cent – have made the biggest contribution to the drop in active cases and will continue for another week or longer. There had been around 60 cases in the first 12 weeks of the year, all having to be transferred from hotel quarantine to hospital.

As Australia’s nearest neighbour continues to battle the epidemic, Queensland Health has been vaccinating communities in the Torres Strait, and is expected to help with similar efforts across the border in remote parts of PNG.

In the coming weeks, Queensland will surpass 1,500 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, which is still thousands fewer than authorities had feared. There have been six deaths but none for almost a year.

But how to manage the coronavirus in the future remains a contentious issue, with the Palaszczuk and Morrison governments continuing to argue over the potential role of a proposed quarantine facility near Toowoomba. There have also been tensions over the slow pace of the vaccine rollout, which Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has said would also be critical to avoiding lockdowns and restrictions.