A Queensland infectious diseases physician says strict COVID measures should be relaxed and COVID dialogue changed if the plan is to normalise and "live with the virus".
Despite touting the line in daily press conferences, Queensland Health and the state government say current measures including isolation periods for COVID contacts, are based off “the best expert medical advice” available and are intended to slow the virus’ transmission.
After reaching the proposed 80 per cent vaccination target, the state’s borders were reopened to interstate hotspots last week, bringing with it an influx of COVID cases and the new Omicron variant.
Since then, the state’s COVID figures have near doubled every two days "as expected", reaching a record 86 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, and sending hundreds into isolation over the Christmas period.
Queensland is expected to reach 90 per cent for single doses today.
But infectious diseases physician and UQ researcher Paul Griffin says if the vaccination target has been met, and the plan was to let COVID into the community, isn't it time to reduce the stringent rules for citizens?
"We just haven't evolved our thinking to being accustomed to seeing these sorts of numbers and having a practical response to that to limit spread without it being one that that's difficult to uphold.”
He says while less impacting guidelines and rules including mask wearing and using QR codes should continue, others like requiring isolation and residents checking an ever-growing list of exposure sites should be relaxed.
"Masks for example, we'll check in to help our public health teams, but some of the quarantine periods and expectations around those shifting exposures sites are becoming very challenging given the number we're seeing,” Dr Griffin said.
"Get the vaccination rate as high as possible, encourage boosters because we know it helps with Omicron, checking in, socially distancing, but then maybe we can start to relax some of the quarantine periods and be a bit more liberal with some of these recommendations."
Dr Griffin said dialogue around COVID numbers should also shift from focusing on daily COVID numbers to only outlining serious cases like hospitalisations and ICU rates.
"Because even though the concern with Omicron is that our vaccine protection might be reduced, it still holds true that the vast majority of people that end up in hospital really sick are those that aren't' vaccinated," he said.
'Best expert medical advice'
However, Queensland Health said the present measures were vital and based on the best expert medical advice "to prioritise the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders".
"We must balance these factors against the serious health risk COVID-19 poses to more than five million Queenslanders."
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the state couldn’t cope with less at this point, as even with such rules in place, the Omicron variant was resulting in doubled cases each day.
"So, if you reduce the measures the rate of increase goes up,” he said.
"People are coming (to Queensland from interstate) in the hundreds and thousands."
According to Chief Health Officer John Gerrard the measures were simply in place to slow down the virus’ rate of transmission, to reduce the strain on hospitals and to “allow people to get their third dose of vaccine, particularly the vulnerable”.
"Vaccination, increasing mask wearing and reducing seeding events," he said.
"As with all of these, we review these measures on a daily basis."
