The Queensland Premier announced on Monday that border restrictions would ease four days early, with fully vaccinated NSW tourists to be welcomed in from 1am on December 13.When asked if the move was the end of border closures, she said she was “confident” in high vaccination rates and that the border would stay open for the foreseeable future.“We hope so … I know that everyone is looking forward to welcoming family and friends home who they haven’t seen for a long, long time,” Ms Palaszczuk told Today.“We hope so, under the national plan to keep things going the way they are. Our vaccination rates are going up as well. I am very confident … fingers crossed everything goes well.”While speaking of Queensland’s often-criticised border exemption scheme, which saw dozens of families publicly campaign to be reunited amid Covid outbreaks, Ms Palaszczuk was unapologetic.“The people in the exemptions unit had to go through thousands of applications … my understanding is that like 75-80 per cent of them have been granted,” she said.“My job has been to keep Queenslanders safe. And whilst I might have been criticised in other parts of the country, people in my state have not been critical.”But she revealed Queensland would look to let people who have been camped along the border in caravans for weeks or months be the first to come in.“When the borders open at 1am on Monday the 13th we really want to prioritise those caravans who have been sitting at the border for some time and might even set up a special lane for them on Monday and Tuesday to get them across and get them home.”Ms Palaszczuk also said that Queensland would have to accept that Covid case “doughnut days” were over, and localised restrictions like mask-wearing might be introduced as outbreaks emerge.“It will be really different for Queenslanders … we are going to see cases, that is going to be a reality,” she said.It comes as another six cases of the Omicron variant were linked to Sydney’s Regents Park cluster, bringing NSW’s total to 31 cases.Daily Telegraph – News Feed latest episodeOf the total infections, 20 are linked to the Western Sydney cluster, and 11 are linked to overseas travel or flights.But not a single Covid case in a NSW hospital is suffering from the new Omicron variant, NSW’s top doctor has revealed.Promising data trickling in from across the world has so far demonstrated Omicron has caused only a mild disease — and as of last night, no one has died from the strain yet. Infectious diseases expert Peter Collignon said sample sizes for Omicron infections had remained “small” but that this was “perversely a good thing”.Prof Collignon said the small sample sizes from South Africa indicated the virus was not driving a major surge in death and hospitalisation but it is “still early days” to confirm it’s risk to public health.“The trouble is, it’s a small sample size. You need to know the ages because if you disproportionately look at young people it’ll look like there are less hospitalisations,” he said.“But with the small sample, this means it can’t be as bad as people are saying. Variants are only really a major problem if the vaccines don’t work or they cause a higher death or hospitalisation date.“There isn’t any evidence that it causes worse disease.”NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant yesterday backed Prof Collignon’s claims, revealing that of the 152 cases in hospital locally — none had the new variant. “There are currently 152 cases requiring hospitalisation with 24 people in intensive care … to date there have been no cases of Omicron variant admitted to hospital for Covid related care in NSW,” she said.Dr Chant said she expected numbers linked to a cluster in Regents Park to continue to climb after 14 people were infected.America’s top medical Adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said Delta was still driving hospitalisations in the US while early reports showed Omicron was “less severe” so far.“Thus far, it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it,” he told CNN.Dr Fauci said US President Joe Biden was considering lifting travel restrictions on African countries in line with the strain’s manageable impact.“We all feel very badly about the hardship that has been put not only on South Africa but the other African countries,” he said.Clinical microbiologist Paul Griffin told The Daily Telegraph that Omicron had the “potential” to be a good thing but “it’s too early” to draw definitive conclusions. Prof Griffin said early analysis showed that fatigue was the most prominent symptom of the strain while more severe implications like a loss of taste and smell were not common.NAT – Stay Informed – Social Media
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