Queensland has reported nearly 10,000 new cases of COVID including RAT test results, but they are waiting on more private lab results to come back, which partly explains the drop since the last update (18000 cases). Most of the cases and ICU admissions come from low vaccinated and point on entry on the Gold Coast:
From the ABC:
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said case numbers will start to become a poorer indicator of how the virus is moving through the community and the focus will shift more toward hospitalisations.
Dr Gerrard said the Gold Coast was a region of particular concern when it came to the spread of COVID.
He said of the 21 ICU patients in Queensland, 11 are on the Gold Coast.
“A quarter of the ward admissions, 101 out of 419 [are] currently on the Gold Coast, suggesting that there is a significant surge of the virus there on the Gold Coast,” Dr Gerrard said.
“It’s not surprising given the sheer number of interstate visitors which would have caused seeding events to have occurred.
“It’s not surprising given the sheer number of interstate visitors that would have caused seeding events to occur, particularly in this area because we know we have a lot of travellers going to this region.
“But I would also point out the vaccination rates are on the low end, I think the lowest in South East Queensland at least.
“Of those 11 in the intensive care unit (on the Gold Coast), six are unvaccinated and they have classical COVID pneumonia which we saw in the pre-vaccination era. That’s a similar clinical picture to what we saw in New York and Rome and in Melbourne before vaccinations existed.
It’s hard to believe in my mind, how you can still be unvaccinated in a pandemic.”
Indeed.
Meanwhile, Tasmania has recorded just over 1200 new cases, but without anyone in ICU, while the ACT recorded nearly 1000 cases (without RAT results):
Oh, and FriendlyJordies smells a RAT: