‘Delta is on our doorstep’: Annastacia Palaszczuk urges Queenslanders to get vaccinated

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has warned that the NSW Delta outbreak remained a threat to the state but refused to set any timetable for when it’s population would reach 80 percent full vaccination.

Ms Palaszczuk was opening a new vaccination centre at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall as she repeated the message that the state now had a ‘window of opportunity’ to lift vaccination rates.

‘Everyone knows that it is going to be impossible to keep this [Delta] out forever, we need to do everything we can to prepare our population to get vaccinated. 

‘This is so urgent, it’s almost a plea to Queenslanders, please come forward and get vaccinated.’ 

Ms Palaszczuk arrives at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall to announce a new vaccination centre on Brisbane’s north side

Ms Palaszczuk said the threat of Delta from the NSW outbreak was a ‘real and present danger’ to the state.

‘We are seeing a very large outbreak of the Delta virus in NSW. 

‘It’s causing people to become very sick and it’s also causing people to end up in hospital.

‘There has never been a more real threat to Queensland than what is on our border.’

Asked when Queensland would reach the 80 percent double-dose vaccination rate at which many Covid restrictions would ease under the national cabinet four-phase plan, Ms Palaszczuk would not commit to a timetable. 

‘We’re doing those projections and forecasts at the moment with the supply,’ she said. ‘Once we get the allocations and supply forecasts for the next 6-8 weeks, we’ll be able to say more.’

No new cases of community transmission in the state were announced on Tuesday. 

More than 900 families in the Windaroo High School community were released from home quarantine on Monday after they tested negative for the virus despite coming into contact with an ill four-year-old girl at a school and a daycare centre in the Beenleigh area.

The girl’s mother subsequently tested positive on Saturday and a truck driver tested positive on Thursday.

Families gather the NSW-Queensland border at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads on Father’s Day – Ms Palaszczuk has again warned of the risks of the current Delta outbreak in NSW to her state

Queensland’s vaccination rate has lagged behind some other states but Ms Palaszczuk and her colleagues blame a lack of vaccine supply from the Commonwealth for the problem

Queensland’s vaccination rate is well behind some other states, which Ms Palaszczuk and her colleagues blame on the lack of supply of vaccines from the Commonwealth. 

The premier said 53.33 percent of eligible Queenslanders had now had a first dose of a Covid vaccine, while 34.75% are fully vaccinated. 

‘It’s incredible to see the nerve of Greg Hunt to be out there criticising Queenslanders, calling us laggards, when he knows full well how many vaccines he’s taken from Queensland to give to NSW, and he knows … that we are fully utilising our allocation,’ Deputy Premier Steve Miles said. 

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said it was unfair to criticise the state for its slow rollout when Queensland had been using all doses supplied, more supplies were going to NSW due to the outbreak, and Queensland GPs were receiving 60 per cent of deliveries.

‘We’ve got mass vaccination centres sitting here, ready to vaccinate people, we need more vaccine,’ Ms D’Ath said.

‘The Commonwealth government has got to stop playing politics and be honest about the distribution of the vaccines, how much is being given to us and when it’s being given to us because we are using everything we’ve got.’