On the time, former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned of the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, and as Omicron circumstances peaked within the first week of January 2022, she introduced the return of college can be delayed by two weeks to permit youthful youngsters to get vaccinated.
However a secret taxpayer-funded sentiment survey on January 28, 2022 – handed to the federal government on the time however solely just lately launched – discovered most dad and mom wished their youngsters again in school.
Most supported an possibility for fast antigen checks (RATs) to be accessible for college kids or academics who developed signs in school, a measure that was adopted, together with necessary masks.
“Simply I really feel prefer it’s going to be extra sensible with work. Each time they get a runny nostril I’m not going to have the ability to take day off work each 5 minutes,” one dad or mum instructed Ipsos researchers.
Researchers additionally requested 126 dad and mom of youngsters aged 5 to 17 what they considered RAT testing their youngsters twice per week within the first month of college, assuming the checks had been free. This concept was not adopted in Queensland.
Extra Ipsos analysis, ready for the Premier’s division in March 2022, discovered most dad and mom had been completely happy youngsters had been again in school and life was returning to regular, with a part of the positivity pushed by vaccination charges and the way the schooling system was coping with COVID.
Nevertheless, when strict COVID guidelines vanished, viruses returned, with the flu placing extra Queenslanders in per week in Could 2023 than all of 2021.
Final yr’s whole of influenza circumstances – 74,354 – was larger than in 2019, which was the worst yr for flu in practically twenty years.
Queensland has among the many lowest vaccination charges for influenza within the nation, with only one in 5 individuals aged 15 to 50 receiving the jab throughout flu season final yr.
Different bugs are surging too, with 1576 circumstances of gastro parasite cryptosporidiosis – linked to public swimming swimming pools – thus far this yr, in contrast with the imply of 122 circumstances year-to-date between 2019 and 2023.
The variety of individuals hospitalised with COVID-19, influenza and RSV in Queensland from January 1, 2023 to February 19, 2024.Credit score: Queensland Well being
The variety of individuals hospitalised with COVID additionally remained excessive over summer season.
AMAQ president Dr Maria Boulton inspired individuals who had been sick to remain residence – which stopped the unfold of diseases – but additionally urged individuals to relaxation and let themselves recuperate.
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However Boulton acknowledged which will trigger monetary troubles.
“That’s one thing that the federal government wants to think about at these instances when there’s loads of sickness going round and there’s loads of pressure on the well being system – some method to assist people who find themselves beneath monetary misery to have the ability to keep residence in the event that they’re sick,” she stated.
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