But in good news, the number of people hospitalised with the virus continues to fall as the State reaches the end of the Omicron wave and restrictions are lifted on March 4.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told State Parliament on Thursday morning that in the past 24 hours eight people had died from Covid-19, four of them in residential aged care.

It comes after 37 deaths were reported on Wednesday, 29 of them historic and notified by Births, Deaths and Marriages. But the number of new infections reported is down from 6300 on Wednesday.

Palaszczuk said the number of hospitalisations was trending downward from 379 on Wednesday to 334 on Thursday.

She said the number of infections in children was also now trending downwards in “pleasing news”.

But vaccination rates amongst five to 11-year-olds continue to lag and currently sit at only 42.28 per cent having had a first dose of the vaccine.

Palaszczuk called on parents to get their children vaccinated ahead of the easing of restrictions and the end of mask-wearing, set to come into effect on March 4.

So far, 63.59 per cent of eligible Queenslanders have now had a booster shot and 90.71 per cent of the State is now double dosed.

It comes as the World Health Organisation chief lamented the fact that 83 per cent of the African population is yet to receive a single vaccine dose, warning it was an ideal scenario for the emergence of new variants of Covid-19.

The Omicron variant is believed to have first surfaced in southern Africa in late 2021 and quickly spread around the world, due to its high transmissibility rate.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, blamed “vaccine nationalism and manufacturers prioritizing high-income countries”.

“This is not only a moral failure, it is also an epidemiological failure, which is creating the ideal conditions for new variants to emerge,” Ghebreyesus said.