QUEENSLAND has recorded just two additional cases to its COVID-19 tally as it’s revealed authorities will consider how a staged opening up of the state might work, that lets regional cities get back to life before the southeast.

QUEENSLAND has recorded just two additional cases to its COVID-19 tally as its revealed authorities will consider how a staged opening up of the state might work, that lets regional cities get back to life before the southeast.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said National Cabinet was today considering what needed to happen before the country could start shedding strict shutdown measures.
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Asked whether authorities might consider a stretch of no new cases as an impetus to relax restrictions, Dr Young told reporters: “That’s a very, very important question and that’s actually one National Cabinet is considering today.”
She said Queensland was part of the national response but was considering whether it could take any of its own measures when rules eventually started relaxing.
“That’s part of the work we’re currently going through at the moment, looking at all of the strategies that have been put in place and then trying to work out whether it’s possible to review any of those,” she said of National Cabinet.
Asked whether regional Queensland towns with no COVID-19 cases might open before the southeast in a staged reopening, she said: “At this stage we need to really continue all of our measures across the state but that’s of course one of the things one of the things we’ll possibly be looking at down the track.”
It came as Health Minister Steven Miles announced there had been five cases identified in the past 24 hours, but three cases counted from yesterday had since been deemed not COVID-19, bringing the state’s total cases to 1001.
Of that total, authorities say about 700 can be attributed to people who caught the virus overseas, with another 160 attributed to people who had contact with someone who had been overseas, meaning 86 per cent of the state’s cases are related to international travel.
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Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says most of Queenslands coronavirus cases have been related to overseas travel. Picture: Annette Dew
But Dr Young warned “we are not over the worst of it” and there would be another spike coming soon, with Australians stuck overseas attempting to return.
“The numbers will get worse because of those people returning from overseas. That’s the group I’m concerned about,” she said, adding they would all go into mandatory hotel quarantine to protect the community.
It’s understood a plane of up to 400 people is expected from India in the next 24 hours, although its departure is not guaranteed.
Meanwhile, Dr Young doubled down on the state’s decision to only open schools to the children of essential workers and vulnerable children for at least the next five weeks.
“It is really important in every aspect of society we minimise contact and minimise the opportunity for this virus to spread,” she said.
“So that’s in everything we do and schools play their part.
“So I know it must be extraordinarily difficult for parents at home trying to supervise their children and for their children to continue to get their education.”
But she said educators had responded very well and online learning was available.