Restrictions to go by end of month as Queensland eyes last days of Omicron
Ten more people have died from Covid-19 in Queensland in the past 24 hours as the Government pledges to consider scrapping restrictions, such as mask wearing, at the end of February.
Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard, pictured with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk- a familiar double-act before daily Covid updates were ceased. (Photo: ABC)
The State’s Chief Health Officer, Dr John Gerrard, said restrictions would be reviewed as the Omicron wave comes to an end within weeks.
It comes as authorities announced 5286 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday and 10 deaths. This is up from just 3750 new cases on Monday and six deaths.
But, for the first time in days, the death toll does not include any people in aged care facilities.
Dr Gerrard said that of those who lost their lives, three each were in their 60s and 70s, one in their 80s and three in their 90s.
Of the 10, one had received one dose of the vaccine, six had been double dosed and six had received a booster.
In encouraging signs the State has now weathered the worst of the Omicron wave, and is on the way down, the number of people in hospitals continues to fall.
On Tuesday, there were 462 people in public hospitals with Covid-19, down from 484 the previous day. And 34 are in intensive care, down from 40 on Monday.
The number of school children, aged five to 17 years, testing positive has also not exploded, despite the return to school on February 7.
Gerrard said that 1587 children had tested positive to the virus, up from 963 the previous day.
“I would not read too much into a single day’s reading,” he said.
“Interestingly we have been looking at New South Wales experience which is a week ahead of us in terms of school’s return and they have only seen a very slight blip in increasing cases on return to school.”
Gerrard said authorities were currently reviewing all the virus-related restrictions, such as indoor mask requirements, and a decision would be made at the end of February of any changes.
“All of them (restrictions) are currently under review give that this Omicron wave is coming to an end. We are also working with our interstate colleagues to see what they are doing,” he said.
“We have always said we would look at these measures at the end of this month.”
Gerrard said that if restrictions were eased and there was a resulting resurgence of infections then some of the regulations could be reintroduced. But this was mere speculation at present.
“The virus is not going to go away. We are still going to see transmission of the virus heading into winter but clearly the numbers are continuing to fall,” he said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was encouraging that there had not been huge numbers of primary school children testing positive since the return to school.
