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Queensland's coronavirus case tally has passed the 1,000 mark as the number of new cases continues to trend downwards, but Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young warns the state is "not over the worst of it".
Key points:
- Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says returning travellers will boost the case load
- Health Minister Steven Miles says the state's case tally has hit 1,001
- Restrictions will be reviewed in coming weeks, Mr Miles says
This morning, Health Minister Steven Miles said five new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed overnight.
The number of earlier positive tests was revised, bringing the state's total to 1,001.
Mr Miles said there were 21 people being treated in hospital, 11 of whom were in intensive care.
Dr Young said while this was a positive result, there could be worse to come, with several flights recently bringing Queenslanders back home from overseas.
"We do expect that there will probably be some increased cases because of the numbers of people returning from overseas," she said.
"We know that eventually we will see larger numbers of cases but because of the work that's been done today, our health system here in Queensland will be able to cope with those larger numbers of cases.
"The strategies in place are working and Queenslanders have heard the message and are minimising the amount of contact they have with other people and minimising the time that they spend outside their own home."
Dr Young also noted "a slow increase in the number of cases acquired interstate".
"So it's really important that people manage that and that people don't travel interstate unless they really do need to," she said.
Mr Miles said about 2,200 had been tested in the past 24 hours.
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Restrictions under consideration
Mr Miles said the Government would be reviewing some restrictions in the coming weeks.
"If we manage to keep this up then we will be able to go back to normal eventually, but we need to keep it up for quite some time," he said.
"We've indicated that some of the restrictions would be reviewed, for example in five weeks' time.
"Those considerations are all ongoing."
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Most cases travel-related
Dr Young said most of Queensland's COVID-19 cases were related to overseas travel.
"We've had over 700 cases out of our thousand from people who contracted the infection overseas," she said.
"Then we've had a further additional 160 cases, most of those because they've contracted it from someone who contracted it overseas."
Dr Young also confirmed Queensland police were working on bringing home more than 200 Queenslanders from Western Australia, where they have been stuck since leaving quarantine.
Who should present to COVID-19 clinics?
- People with a fever (or history of fever) or acute respiratory symptoms, AND, in the last 14 days:
- they were a close contact or a household contact of a confirmed case, OR
- they had been overseas, including on a cruise
Testing is also possible for people who have a fever (or history of fever) or acute respiratory symptoms, AND:
Queensland Health has set up testing and fever clinics for people who may be infected with COVID-19.Patients who are tested should remain isolated at home until they receive their test results.
For more information about coronavirus call 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84) or go to the Queensland Health website
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Topics: epidemics-and-pandemics, covid-19, federal---state-issues, health-policy, travel-health-and-safety, federal---state-issues, government-and-politics, diseases-and-disorders, infectious-diseases-other, respiratory-diseases, brisbane-4000, qld
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