Annastacia Palaszczuk finally commits to following the rest of Australia in reopening at 80 per cent vaccination as Queensland records another new Covid case
- Stubborn Premier had vowed to keep state shut until kids under 12 were jabbed
- On Sunday she conceded 70-80 per cent double-vaccination mark was pivotal
- She warned Queenslanders to get jabbed now before virus hits in ‘near future’
- Mother of infected four year old girl is latest case after a series of negative tests
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has finally accepted the state will open at 80 per cent double dose vaccinations and urged locals to get jabbed now.
The state recorded one new Covid case, sparking a renewed call from the premier for Queenslanders to go out and get vaccinated for the state to reopen.
The stubborn premier had previously hinted she was not going to re-open her state’s borders until children under 12 had been vaccinated.
There are currently no Covid vaccines in Australia approved for children under 12.
But on Sunday she appeared to backtrack and accept the inevitability of borders coming down – and told locals to make the most of this time and get vaccinated.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) has finally accepted the state will open at 80 per cent double dose vaccinations and urged locals to get jabbed now
She now wants locals to get jabbed as soon as possible before the state faces an influx of double-jabbed interstate travellers bringing the virus into Queensland.
‘It is absolutely imperative that you get vaccinated because this virus is going to pop up sometime in the near future,’ she said on Sunday.
‘This is basically our window to get this done. We have been hearing extensively about the modelling of 70 and 80 per cent.
‘We need to aim for 80 per cent and above. We have this window of opportunity, Queensland, to get vaccinated. Now is a window of opportunity to get vaccinated.’
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczu wants locals to get vaccinated now before the state is confronted by an influx of double-jabbed interstate travellers bringing in the virus. (Pictured, holidaymakers soaking up the sun in a swimming pool in Airlie Beach)
The mother of a four-year-old girl who has Covid-19 has now also tested positive for the virus after a series of negative tests.
Ms Palaszczuk says the woman tested negative twice before returned a positive result among 8330 tests in the 24 hours to 6:30am on Sunday.
The woman was already in home quarantine when she tested positive.
However the premier is still concerned that the index case who transmitted the virus to a truck driver, who then spread the virus to the girl, is still out there.
Ms Palaszczuk has urged 1,000 families, ordered into home quarantine exposed to the girl and her mother at the Windaroo State School and nearby daycare centre, to abide by health orders.
“We really need you to abide by their home quarantine, we saw how well it worked, especially when we dealt with the Indooroopilly cluster,” she told reporters on Sunday.
The premier had previously hinted she was not going to re-open her state’s borders until children under 12 had been vaccinated. (Pictured, a woman in a bikini walks along the deserted beach at Surfers Paradise)
There are also concerns about the lack of checking in at the Beenleigh Marketplace and nail salon in the complex when the infected truckie visited both venues on Monday.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said at least 74 people were are the centre at the same time as the truckie, but had not checked in.
“So I’m very worried that there are a lot more people who went and attended last Monday morning and we need to get hold of you,” she told reporters.
“So we’re using the checking data that we’ve got, but it’s not enough.
“So that is an ongoing risk so it’s really really important that anyone who was there on Monday that they come forward so we can test them and make sure that there isn’t ongoing spread in that Logan-Beenleigh community.”
A Qantas pilot who lives near Kingaroy and flew from Brisbane to Hong Kong and then Melbourne has also tested positive on arrival in the Victorian capital.
He was fully vaccinated and works as a part-time freight truck driver and had been in the northern NSW Tamworth on August 20.
Queensland authorities are trying to work out where he got the virus and waiting for sequencing data from Victoria.
A third truck driver has also tested positive for COVID-19 in NSW after being infectious in Brisbane’s southern suburbs for two days.
Dr Young said she was confident the risk posed by both cases is low.
Anyone in the Beenleigh and Logan areas with even the mildest of symptoms is urged to come forward for testing.
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