Qld braces for tens of thousands of cases

The advice follows Thursday’s national cabinet meeting, which saw a national definition for close contact created. The decision, made by Scott Morrison and state leaders, will drastically change the number of Australians needing to get tested and isolate.Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard agreed with the change but said people should prepare for a major case spike as Covid seeps across the community.“I’m talking to my colleagues in hospitals regularly and I can say it is likely in the coming days that there will be intensive care admissions … there definitely are sick patients in hospital,” he said.“We’re not going to be talking about 8000 cases in a few weeks, we’re going to be talking about tens of thousands of cases and that’s what a pandemic is about – very large numbers of cases.”However, Dr Gerrard also said the surge was happening at a relatively optimal time due to warm summer weather and more than 86 per cent of the state being fully vaccinated.“This is the time to be having a pandemic,” he said. “If we are to experience this pandemic, in January is probably the best time because it’s warm and we know that the virus spreads more easily in the cooler months.” Queensland recorded 2222 new Covid cases on Thursday, bringing the state’s active cases to 8586. Dr Gerrard will reveal Friday’s case numbers at a news conference in Brisbane on Friday morning. Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au