Dr Young said infectious disease physician Krispin Hajkowicz, the man widely tipped to replace her when she becomes Governor on November 1, “would be superb” in the role.

She said Dr Hajkowicz, the director of infectious diseases at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, had taken a lead in the response of Queensland public hospitals in managing COVID-19 cases.

“We are going to end up with cases going forward,” Young said. “This will be endemic in Queensland, in Australia, in the world, so we need to be prepared. He will be the perfect person. But it has not been announced. We will wait and see who the next chief health officer is.”

Hajkowicz, a 45-year-old father of three, is seen as a good communicator and collaborator in the mould of Young, 58, who has held the role for 16 years.

Young has successfully stemmed the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in Queensland.

The state has had just 2029 known cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic early last year, including seven deaths.

That represents just two per cent of the confirmed cases across Australia and 0.56 per cent of the deaths, despite Queensland making up 20 per cent of the nation’s population.

But if Hajkowicz accepts the role, as predicted by InQueensland last week, he will face the difficult task of guiding the state through the reopening of borders.

Cases of SARS-CoV-2 are predicted to soar in Queensland after border restrictions are lifted, even once 80 per cent of the population aged 16 and older is vaccinated.

Queensland has three new outbreaks of the virus – one related to an aviation training facility and two involving separate cross-border truck drivers – collectively sending more than 1000 people into quarantine.

The aviation industry cluster includes a man, in his 30s, who worked at the facility, and his wife.

A Gold Coast pilot, who lives at Biggera Waters, is also part of that outbreak. He had already received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Young locked down hospitals, aged care homes and disability care facilities – and reintroduced stricter mask wearing requirements – on the Gold Coast, after the pilot, in his 50s, and a truck driver, who lives at Gaven, tested positive.

“We still need to protect our most vulnerable because we don’t have high enough vaccination rates,” she said. “So I ask everyone, if you have not yet been vaccinated, please come out today.”

‘It’s really, really important because you won’t get that full protection for at least five weeks after Pfizer, six weeks after Moderna and 12 weeks after AstraZeneca.

“There is plenty of vaccine. We have sufficient vaccine for every Queenslander 12 years of age and older who wants to be vaccinated.”

Young said genomic sequencing had revealed a Sydney truck driver, who tested positive on Tuesday while staying in student accommodation at South Brisbane, had the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, which he caught in NSW before bringing it to Queensland.

“We’re getting … cases every single day coming into Queensland,” she said. “They’ll continue to come when we’ve got large numbers of cases just on the other side of our border.”

Despite the new outbreaks, Queensland has so far escaped another lockdown.

“I can’t say I’m comfortable,” Young said. “I’m watching this very, very carefully. Because Queenslanders have done such a fantastic job with our last few outbreaks, with wearing masks, with coming forward and getting tested … at the moment, I’m prepared to wait and see.

“All of these cases we’ve got are linked. I know where all these people have got their cases. I don’t have a random case in the community that’s popped out of nowhere.”

In the wake of the latest outbreaks, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that all of Queensland Health’s more than 80 COVID vaccination clinics would offer walk-in shots from Wednesday.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for all Queenslanders to get vaccinated,” she said. “We won’t keep Delta out of our community forever.”

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath encouraged Queenslanders who had previously been unable to secure a booking until October or November to search for new appointment slots.

“Alternatively, you can walk in at one of Queensland Health’s vaccination centres,” she said.