Omicron spreads quickly
QUEENSLAND’S top doctor has warned the state will see “significant" Covid cases in January as the Omicron variant continues to spread.
The state announced 42 new cases of Covid on Sunday, with chief health officer Dr John Gerrard warning the number was double that of Friday’s cases.
“If this rate continues we’ll see significant numbers in January as predicted,” he said.
Of the 42 cases, 34 were locally acquired, seven from interstate and one acquired overseas.
A Gold Coast police officer and up to 25 other colleagues are isolating following their diagnosis. There was also a case detected in Mt Isa.
“We believe there are undetected cases in the community, we have to assume that,” Dr Gerrard said.
“Not just the coastal cities that are affected, now it’s the inland cities.
“So all Queenslanders must consider themselves potentially exposed, or it is likely most Queenslanders will be potentially exposed to this virus in coming weeks.”
There’s now 142 active cases across the state and 84.2 of eligible people are doubled dosed, with 89.5 single dosed. Dr Gerrard said 90 per cent single dose would likely be reached this week.
There were 18,312 tests carried and 14,615 vaccines administered by Queensland Health in the 24 hours until Sunday morning.
Dr Gerrard said after speaking to most of the doctors of current Covid patients, he said most people had minimal or no symptoms.
One person, who was unvaccinated, was “moderately unwell and breathless”.
The chief health officer said it was “disappointing” people were still unvaccinated during a global pandemic. “Please, please go off and get that first dose, for those who are five months after receiving second dose, it’s particularly wise now to get a booster, especially if you’re older and vulnerable.”
NSW announced 2566 cases on Sunday, the highest tally of daily coronavirus cases in Australia and a jump from the 2482 cases detected on Saturday. There’s 227 people in hospital and 28 in ICU wards.
In Victoria, 1240 new cases were recorded and another four people have died. There were 392 people in hospital with the virus, 81 in intensive care and 41 on a ventilator.
Dr Gerrard said previously all patients with Covid were admitted to hospitals, mainly for infection control purposes, but this directive was about to change. “We are moving away from that model and clearing beds to allow capacity in the coming weeks, should we require it,” he said.
“I can also tell you that information in the last 24 hours suggests that the Omicron strain is becoming dominant in Queensland, with 21 out of 25 last tested viruses being found to be the Omicron strain.
“And this is happening very rapidly, more rapidly than we originally predicted, we thought it might take weeks but if this trend continues it will be dominant in days.”
Dr Gerrard said while Omicron was “very contagious ” it appeared the vaccine was “very effective in preventing severe disease, which is the main thing”.
The virus spreading in the community was “inevitable and necessary” and Dr Gerrard said doing it during summer while schools were closed was good timing.
Early data suggested vaccines were effective in preventing severe symptoms, he said.