Last wants clarity on restrictions ‘Business needs an open date’

COVID-19 CONFUSION restrictions about the end has o of prompted calls for clarity as Townsville goes 22 days with no new cases. Dr The Jeannette state’s Young, chief health says officer, the rer gion can look to reopen after 28 days with no new cases. and Yesterday Health Service Townsville data Hospital revealed a the number of people going to the e drive-through testing clinic had dropped by about 400 since it opened, with figures fluctuating with broader testing criteria.

The good news has Burdekin MP and opposition North Queensland spokesman Dale Last calling for Mundingburra MP Coralee O’rourke ( pictured) to update North Queensland businesses about when restrictions will be lifted.

He said businesses needed time to prepare for reopening and the earlier a date could be set, the better.

“If you take food businesses for example, and even some retailers, they will need time to restock before opening and that simply doesn’t happen overnight,” he said.

Mr Last said the May 7 date, which marked 28 days, was fast approaching and discussions needed to be had.

Ms O’rourke said the state government was following Dr Young’s advice.

“Let’s be very clear: I have n not once ever stated a date,” sh she said. “What I did say was th that the chief health officer h has clearly stated that before w we can give any considerat ation to reopening businesses and going back to some se sense of normality, we needed to have two clear incuba bation periods of 14 days ea each.

“From then we can start h having those conversations about what reopening looks like and how we can do it safely.”

Ms O’rourke said the premier was aware people were keen to reopen and get back to normal, but it had to be done safely.

“She has established a task force, and that’s made up of health and economic professionals, that can clearly look at how we can reopen, what plans we can put in place and how we can support our businesses to do that safely,” Ms O’rourke said. Townsville Hospital and Health Service chief executive Kieran Keyes said North Queenslanders had done a “remarkable job in flattening the COVID-19 curve”, but the region was not out of the woods.

He said the drive-through clinic numbers at Reid Park had fluctuated since it was first established and usually changed when testing criteria changed. Of the 24 cases in the Townsville region, only two are still active.