MILLIONS of rapid antigen tests are bound for Queensland as the state see’s a significant drop in COVID-19 cases.
Queensland has recorded 6,857 cases from 14,000 tests in the last 24-hour reporting period, well down from the 8,643 reported on Thursday.
Another 13 people have died with the virus, including nine in residential aged care.
Two were unvaccinated, eight had two doses and three had received a booster.
Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said he was “disappointed” by the fact only 70 per cent of Queenslanders over the age of 70 had received a third dose of a vaccine.
“We are seeing a disproportionate number of deaths of older people who have not received a booster,” Dr Gerrard said.
“We know there’s plenty of vaccine out there, plenty of appointments out there.”
Dr Gerrard said he was generally pleased by the vaccination rate across the state but continued to push for older Queenslanders to get a booster shot.
“I think there is a percentage of Queenslanders who are never going to get vaccinated,” he said.
“I am much more focused on that group who clearly have indicated that they want to be vaccinated because they had already had two doses but for some reason I have not got the third dose.
“That is a group that concerns me.”
The CHO was quizzed about whether there would be a relaxing of restrictions once the state hits the 90 per cent double dose mark amid calls from political and business leaders for vaccine mandates and QR codes to become a thing of the past.
“In terms of relaxation of restrictions, we are not looking at any until we know where this is going,” he said.
Dr Gerrard said he is just happy the state is closing in on the 90 per cent target.
“Few of us would have dreamt months ago we would have reached that target,” he said.
“I was sceptical we would reach 70 per cent when we started this vaccination.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Steven Miles visited a medical supply stockpile in Brisbane’s south-west where he revealed the state had 32.5 million rapid antigen tests on order.
4.6 million have already being received and another 1.2 million are expected to arrive from Sydney in the next couple of days ahead of the start of the 2022 school year on Monday.
“That is 100 pallet loads of rapid antigen tests,” Mr Miles said.
“The pallets downstairs will be distributed to schools and be available in schools on Monday.
“That’s 250,000 tests ready here in the stockpile being distributed into schools over the weekend.”
