Queensland’s Covid cases dip with 11,600 new infections and 15 deaths

Queensland has seen new cases of Covid-19 dip slightly to 11,600 new infections but there were 15 deaths.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath announced the new figures on Thursday, saying the people who had passed were aged between 60s and 90s.

The figures contrast with 13,511 cases and nine deaths announced yesterday.

There are currently 829 people in Queensland public hospitals and 48 patients in ICU, compared with 889 and 47 yesterday.

Ms D’Ath said the hospitalisation rate on the Gold Coast continues to fall on consecutive days, suggesting the Omicron wave had peaked in the city.   

Two people who died were in their 60s, nine in their 80s and four in their 90s, Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said.

‘Four people were unvaccinated, four had received one dose, five had receive two doses and two had received a booster,’ he said. 

Ms D’Ath said she felt optimistic ‘for the first time in few weeks now’ about the current numbers. 

She said there was a stabilisation in the number of people in Brisbane hospitals and that furloughed workers in health care were beginning to return to work. 

Dr Gerrard said ‘widespread vaccination’ was the reason the numbers of people hospitalised due to the virus had not so far met expectations in Queensland.

‘But it’s not over yet,’ he warned. ‘There’s likely to be  a tail and it’s not clear whether there will be further waves, particularly going into winter,’ he said.

‘Brisbane still hasn’t peaked, it has reached it’s peak, and Cairns has seen significant cases in recent days.

‘I have a feeling that this tale will go on for sometime. I don’t think it will be as simple as the flu. 

‘A lot of the severe cases we’re seeing are the unvaccinated.’  

Covid-19 treatment tents are seen at The Gold Coast University hospital. Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the current Omicron wave appeared to have passed as hospitalisations due to Covid continue to fall on consecutive days

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Australia Day that the number of hospitalisations on the Gold Coast suggested the city Omicron peak had been reached. 

Up to nine wards out of 25 at Gold Coast University Hospital had been devoted to Covid patients in the past week.

‘We expect the peak in other regions of Queensland, most notably in the rest of south-east Queensland, to be sometime in the next seven days,’ Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said yesterday. 

People seen out in Brisbane – Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said the current Omicron wave of the virus should peak in south-east Queensland ‘sometime in the next seven days’ 

Ms Palaszczuk warned that elderly people made up the majority of Queensland’s Covid fatalities. 

‘If seniors don’t need to go out in next few weeks, then don’t … It is the elderly people who are losing their lives,’ Ms Palaszczuk said.

Nearly 30 per cent of five to 11-year-old children were now vaccinated ahead of Queensland schools resuming on February 7. 

The state continues to struggle to reach 90 per cent of its eligible population with two doses of a vaccine, reaching 89.3 per cent on Thursday, with 91.19 per cent having received a first dose