October 27, 2022
The Public Health Emergency Declaration which formed the basis of Queensland’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic will end on Monday (October 31).
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said legislation passed in State Parliament this week would create a new framework to manage the next phase of the pandemic.
“The new framework will allow Queensland to adjust its approach to the management of COVID-19 to reflect the new reality we are all living with,” the Minister said.
“When the emergency declaration was first made on January 29, 2020, the world was still coming to terms with this strange virus emanating from Wuhan, China.
“The modelling at that time suggested that more than 10,000 Queenslanders would lose their lives if there was widespread community transmission before vaccination.
“We must acknowledge that even before we had a vaccine, we still lost seven lives.
“Since reaching our vaccination targets and opening our borders, we have lost 2277 lives – and every single one of these deaths is a tragedy.
“But thanks to the collective efforts of Queenslanders, we didn’t let the virus run rampant.
“We were able to live with a semblance of normality throughout the pandemic that very few other communities had.
“It is now very clear that we are in a different stage of the pandemic.
“At our peak, there were 1123 beds occupied by COVID patients in Queensland. “Today, that figure stands at 92 in our public hospitals.
“At its highest, there were 54 COVID patients in our ICUs. Today, that figure now sits at three.”
The new legislation has cut back the powers of the Chief Health Officer in respect to COVID-19.
The CHO can now only issue a public health direction if satisfied the direction is reasonably necessary to:
- Prevent or respond to a serious risk to the public health system or the community as a result of COVID-19, or
- Give effect to decisions of National Cabinet or advice from national advisory bodies relating to the public health response to COVID-19.
These will expire on October 31, 2023.
It’s a good thing for Palaszczuk that she made the former CHO Dr Jeannette Young the State Governor, isn’t it? Very clever. Dr Young can’t comment now on the mess that the Qld government has made after she left. Dr Young kept people safe when there were no vaccines available. Just seven deaths! Then the Labor Party buckled to big business and selfish anti-vax crazies and lifted all the protections just as the Omicron wave hit. Now we have more than 2000 deaths.
Even the way D’Ath speaks (“even before we had a vaccine, we STILL lost seven lives, since reaching our vaccination targets we have lost 2277 lives”) gives a nod and a wink to the false conspiracies that these deaths are linked to the vaccinations not the virus. Watch the noisy Facebook mob use that. But hey, who cares? They vote.
Most of the people dying now are “elderly” over 60 with “co-morbidities”. Just about everyone over 60 has some sort of health issue so why try to keep them safe? COVID-19 deaths sure fix the pressures on hospitals and aged care and gets rid of the boomers who have been blamed as a drain on government coffers all their lives. Except when they were paying rates and taxes of course.
Thanks for nothing Labor but the LNP is even worse. They would have opened the borders before vaccines were even available.