Daily Covid infections have eased in Queensland – as have hospitalisations – but the Sunshine State’s death toll has risen.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday reported 8643 new cases and nine more virus fatalities over the past 24 hours, including another four deaths in aged care.
Of the new deaths, all were aged over 60 and only one had received a booster shot.
The state’s death toll over the course of the pandemic now stands at 234, with all but seven of these fatalities coming in the first 33 days of 2022.
Deaths in aged care account for more than half of the overall tally at 118. A child under 10 with severe underlying conditions was among Wednesday’s 16 fatalities.
Thursday’s daily caseload was down from the 9630 infections reported on Wednesday, but Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said government was still planning for further waves of the pandemic.
“We are particularly concerned about winter,” he said.
“We‘re not going to have the opportunity of seeing what’s happening in the northern hemisphere in advance.”
Dr Gerrard reported public sector hospitalisations dropped from 763 to 749, with the number of people in intensive care falling slightly to 46.
There are still 23 people on ventilators.
The number of private sector hospitalisatxjmtzywions has fallen from 74 to 71.
Comparatively, NSW has 2578 people in hospitals and Victoria has 752.
Thursday’s update comes after the federal government gave 16- and 17-year-old Australians the green light to get their booster shots three months after their second dose.
“We will make sure our vaccination clinics are public clinics will be able to take 16 and 17 year olds, from today,” Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said.
