Queensland authorities have announced that the state’s fourth Covid wave is coming to an end, resulting in the virus traffic light system being downgraded from amber to green.
It means mask recommendations for healthcare settings, crowded indoor spaces, public transport, and ride-share services have been dropped. However, some individual health care practices and hospitals are able to keep mandatory mask wearing.
Acting Premier Steven Miles said the decision was made following a drastic drop in cases this month.
“Active cases have now dropped nearly 40 per cent .. returning us to levels before this wave in early November,” he said.
Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said hospitalisations peaked on December 20 and things were looking much better.
“This wave was significantly less severe than previous waves,” Dr Gerrard said.
“In this last wave, still 80 per cent of people reporting Covid-19 and those being admitted to hospital were reporting it for the first time.
“This year, that’s likely to change as an increasing proportion of the population are infected.”
Dr Gerrard said the state was now entering a new phase of the pandemic as up to 80 per cent of Queenslanders have been infected with the virus.
“We are now going into our fourth year of the pandemic and, effectively, this is a new phase,” Dr Gerrard said.
“This next phase is a critical phase because now we will see what happens in the Queensland population when we have COVID, which isn’t going to go away … [and] hybrid immunity.
“And, at this stage, it’s a bit of an unknown exactly how this will play out during the course of this year. Now we are hoping that that hybrid immunity will protect most Queenslanders against severe disease.
“We don’t have a clear sense of the time course, whether this will resolve into that pattern this year or whether that will take several years, so this will be a very interesting and critical year of the pandemic.”
The state currently has 5904 active cases.
