Gold Coasters are being warned the city is in the middle of a COVID-19 surge, with cases and hospitalisations rising rapidly.
It comes after Queensland recorded 9581 new infections in the past 24 hours, including more than 3,000 from at-home Rapid Antigen Tests.
However, the daily number is believed to actually be a lot higher, as the State Government has not received all test results from a number of private pathologists.
It’s understood a software glitch is to blame for the delay in case reporting, with the data expected to be released this afternoon.
There are currently 419 people being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, with 21 of those in intensive care.
Seven of those are on a ventilator.
The State’s top doctor has revealed that half of all ICU patients in Queensland are on the Gold Coast, including six people who are unvaccinated and have “covid pneumonia”.
Meantime, a quarter of all hospital admissions are also on the Gold Coast.
“It’s not surprising given the sheer number of interstate visitors,” Dr John Gerrard said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk again issued a call out to people on the Gold Coast to get vaccinated, warning the vaccination rate is still too low.
“In the southeast, the Gold Coast is just under the state average but for a tourist destination I would’ve loved to have seen the Gold Coast around 95 per cent vaccinated,” she said.
The Gold Coast has also been singled out as the worst area for following the mask mandates.
In the past 24 hours, police had to hand out more than 189 masks, with 168 of those on the Gold Coast alone.
“Unfortunately when people come on holiday, they don’t feel like they need to comply with protective measures,” the Premier said.
Omicron has well and truly become the dominant strain in Queensland, with the variant now accounting for 90 per cent of cases.
“What we’re going to see in Queensland, which is quite unique, is an Omicron pandemic,” Dr Gerrard said.
Authorities expect there will be another COVID surge when children return to school, however Dr Gerrard reassured parents that most children will have “mild illness”.
“In reality the biggest risk is not to the children themselves, it’s to others around them, to their parents and their grandparents,” he said.
It comes as COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged five to 11 begin today, with the Premier confirming there have already been over 26,000 bookings.
More than 27,087 people with the virus are now being treated at home.
