Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared an outbreak of Omicron variant in her state has peaked and is in decline.
The announcement came on Thursday as the state recorded 5854 new cases and eight deaths – down from 6,902 new cases and 24 deaths the day before.
“New modelling shows Queensland’s Omicron wave has peaked and is trending down,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“At the height of the wave, Queensland recorded 928 hospitalisations and 71 ICU admissions – instead of the worst case scenario of 5,000 hospital beds at the start of the peak, and up to 500 ICU beds.”
Ms Palaszczuk labelled data about Queensland's aged care facilities “distressing” ahead of a meeting with Scott Morrison.
It showed one in four eligible Queensland aged care residents have yet to receive a third jab.
“We were advised by the national cabinet that the vast majority of aged care residents had their booster,” Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Thursday.
“I think today we just need to get the facts on the table as to how many people have actually had their boosters and how many of the staff have had their boosters.”
The federal government is under pressure over its handling of the Omicron wave in aged care.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison assured people last week the Commonwealth’s aged care booster clinics had been to more than 2700 aged care facilities across Australia.
“We have visited 99 per cent of all xjmtzywaged care facilities and offered all residents in those facilities a booster shot,” he said.
Queensland data shows nursing home residents make up the majority of recent coronavirus deaths in the state.
The state recorded its deadliest Covid-19 day on Wednesday, with more than half the fatalities in aged care.
Aged care is set to be high on the agenda when Ms Palaszczuk meets Mr Morrison, and her state and territory counterparts at a national cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Queensland recorded 5854 new Covid cases and eight deaths in the past 24 hours.
Of the deaths, two were in aged care.
One had received their booster, three were double vaccinated and three were unvaccinated.
Queensland reached its 90 per cent double vaccination target on Wednesday.
Of the 5854 new cases reported, 2647 were detected on rapid antigen tests.
Hospitalisations are on the way down, with the state reporting 579 people in hospital with Covid – down from 628 on Wednesday.
There are 46 people in ICU.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said more than 534 children tested positive to Covid via PCR tests on Wednesday.
“We don’t envisage that this jump [in deaths] overnight is directly related to school yet,” she said.
Minister D’Ath said schools would deal with potential outbreaks on a case-to-case basis with the help of the public health unit.
Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said ongoing cases in schools over the coming weeks are expected.
“There was quite substantial transmission in children between five and 17 three weeks ago,” he said.
