Queenslanders will no longer have to check into venues following the state government’s announcement to scrap the contact tracing app for businesses that are not covered under vaccine mandates.
The decision comes as Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the state had overcome its Covid infection peak after a case explosion over the past month.
“We are coming down off the peak now,” she said on Monday.
“All of the data that we have and the modelling that we have seen, it appears that we hit our peak on the fourth of February.”
Fewer Queenslanders had been using the check-in app, with health professionals and local councils criticising it as redundant.
Businesses such as bars, clubs, and pubs will still use the app to check vaccine status.
More than 350,000 students returning to Queensland classrooms on Monday will be unvaccinated, as the state records 4701 new infections and 19 deaths.
The state’s daily infections have plummeted to their lowest since early January, while hospitalisations and ICU admissions also continue to ease.
There are 663 people with the virus being treated in hospital, with 43 in intensive care and 24 on ventilators.
Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said of 19 of the deaths announced on Monday, one person had received a booster vaccine, nine people were unvaccinated, and 10 were in aged care.
More than 1.6 million eligible Queenslanders – or about 58 per cent – have received a booster shot.
Queensland is behind other states in vaccinating children between the ages of 12 and 15
and lags behind in five to 11-year-olds.
One in four children aged 12 to 15 are unvaccinated, while just 39 per cent of kids in the younger cohort have had their jab.
Children on Monday returned to in-person teaching following a two-week delay in reopening schools in Queensland.
Dr Gerrard said outbreaks in classrooms was inevitable but assured parents shutdowns would only be an option if the situation became dire.
“This is not 2021 … there are no major plans to shut down schools, we want to be able to control this virus as a classroom level,” Dr Gerrard said.
“The greatest risk would be for children to spread it to their unvaccinated or unboosted grandparents”.
There are 200 Queensland aged care facilities grappling with active Covid outbreaks.
Across the state’s nursing homes, 151 people have died from the disease.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said evacuating nursing homes would be a last resort.
“If you think about moving people who have mobility issues, many of whom have dementia and other issues, moving them from their home can be very dangerous for them.” he said.
“Of course, in an emergency situation, the state and our ambos and our health servicexjmtzyws know what to do and can do it, but it should not come to that,”
