Dr Jeannette Young
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young

April 20, 2020

There have been no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Queensland since Sunday.

Queensland Health said the current total remained at 1019, with 275 cases listed as active.

Of these active cases, 20 patients were in hospital, with seven in intensive care. The remainder are recovering at home.

Contact tracing continues for recent cases.

“I would like to thank Queenslanders for their role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 by staying home and social distancing,” Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said.

“It’s excellent news that we had no new cases in Queensland overnight, and this is a clear indicator that our social distancing measures are proving to be effective.

“Over the last few days, we’ve seen a handful of cases each day. The last time we didn’t announce any new cases was on March 9.

“All the strategies in place are working and Queenslanders have heard the message.”

Dr Young said 93 per cent of of confirmed cases have recently travelled overseas or had close contact with someone who travelled overseas, such as their partner or flatmate.

“We’ve seen very limited community transmission in Queensland, with only 40 cases where we don’t know the source of infection,” Dr Young said.

“This is a sign that we’re flattening the curve but it’s not time to be complacent just yet. There’s still Queenslanders returning from overseas and interstate.

“It’s very encouraging that numbers have stayed low over the past week, and we want to keep it that way.

“Lifting restrictions too early could cost lives. We need to keep up our current approach, and ensure we can sustain these low numbers over a period of weeks until we can look into lifting restrictions.

“When it’s appropriate to do so, we will see if there’s some measures we can lift in conjunction with National Cabinet that will not lead to a bounceback of cases.

“Any lifting of restrictions will be conducted in a phased approach – they will not be lifted all at once. We will need to maintain a number of social distancing measures for many months to come to continue to contain the spread of COVID-19.”

Dr Young said a total of 85,870 tests for COVID-19 had been undertaken in Queensland.

* * *

Queensland Breakdown

Health Service  Active  Recovered  Deaths Total 
Cairns and Hinterland 5 28 0 33
Central Queensland 2 6 0 8
Central West 0 0 0 0
Darling Downs 15 25 2 42
Gold Coast 52 137 0 189
Mackay 4 11 0 15
Metro North 77 235 3 315
Metro South 76 167 0 243
North West 0 0 0 0
South West 0 0 0 0
Sunshine Coast 13 75 1 89
Torres and Cape 0 0 0 0
Townsville 5 19 0 24
West Moreton 11 26 0 37
Wide Bay 15 9 0 24
Total 275 738 6 1019*

* Queensland Health notes that changes may occur in the number of notifications reported from day-to-day. This is due to updates as new information becomes available or where discrepancies are detected through data quality assurance activities.


 

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