Queensland’s once again posted a record amount of Covid-19 cases overnight, with 10,332 testing positive in the last 24 hours while the Covid-19 death toll has grown as well.
A man in his 80s who passed away on December 27 has been confirmed as a ‘death relating to Covid’, according to Queensland Health authorities.
There are 284 people being treated in hospital, with 12 people in intensive care and two people are on ventilators.
There are now over 42,000 active infections throughout the state, with over 19,000 of them being treated at home.
Queensland’s Health Minister Yvette D’Ath also reports that lines at testing queues are shorter today thanks to some changes made at National Cabinet yesterday.
“I can advise that we’re already seeing a reduction in lines based on the decision by National Cabinet yesterday that people who have a positive Rapid Antigen Test at home do not need to come forward to validate that positive test with a PCR test.
“Again I remind people, if you have a home test and it’s come back positive, then you should assume you are positive with Covid and follow all of the advice that is readily available for you online or in many forms.
“Or if you’re not sure what to do you can ring the 134 Covid number for advice.
“Don’t call an ambulance, don’t show up at an emergency department, simply because you have a positive test, unless you are seriously unwell and needing that treatment,” Minister D’Ath said.
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90.85 per cent of Queensland has received its first dose of the vaccine, while 87.03 per cent of the state is fully vaccinated.
Chief Health Officer Doctor John Gerrard says that while today’s report of over 10,000 tests is high, the real number is likely a lot higher.
“As we know, many patients are doing their own RAT testing at home, some patients will have very mild illness and won’t even recognise they have Covid-19 and some patients wont be able to access testing unfortunately, as we all know,” Doctor Gerrard said.
