Coast will hit Covid peak first in state

THE Gold Coast will reach its Covid peak two weeks ahead of the rest of Queensland, says chief health officer Dr John Gerrard.

It comes as 23,000 new cases were recorded in Queensland to Friday morning, with three people dying from the virus. None of the people, two in their 70s and one in their 60s, were vaccinated.

There are 589 people being treated in hospital which includes 41 patients in ICU, with 15 on ventilators.

Dr Gerrard suggested the peak of the Omicron wave would be reached once the number of hospitalisations started to stabilise, but when that would happen “is the question on everyone’s lips”.

He said Queensland was about two weeks behind NSW case levels, where he believes it is reaching its peak.

On Friday, NSW recorded 63,018 cases and 29 deaths, while Victoria has 34,836 cases and 18 deaths.

“We are going to see steady growth until we reach a peak some time in the next two weeks but because it is a decentralised state we are going to get peaks at different times in different regions,” said Dr Gerrard.

He said the Gold Coast would likely reach its peak before other parts of Queensland due to the region’s initial surge in case numbers.

“The most useful things to look at will be hospitalisation rates rather than the number of cases,” he said.

Dr Gerrard said hospitalisations on the Gold Coast had been relatively steady in the past day or two but it was too early to speculate on if that meant the peak was being reached.

“I think the Gold Coast will be the first to peak,” Dr Gerrard said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she had heard reports of unvaccinated people taking rapid antigen tests every day.

She said she did not know what else the government could do to get more people vaccinated.

Ms Palaszczuk said 91.41 per cent of Queenslanders have now received their first dose of the vaccine.