A rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine will be discussed with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her Cabinet on Wednesday, as fragments of coronavirus were detected at 13 wastewater sites across the state in the past 48 hours.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young will brief Ms Palaszczuk and the Cabinet in Townsville about the rollout of the vaccine.
"The Prime Minister has announced the rollout will probably commence at the end of next month, so we'll be getting an update from Dr Young to the Cabinet about the Pfizer vaccine and how we will go about distributing that in Queensland," Ms Palaszczuk said.
The announcement comes as Queensland Health detected traces of COVID-19 at an additional 13 wastewater sites in the last 48 hours.
In a statement today, Dr Young said the positive readings were detected at Condon (Townsville), Cairns South, Cairns Marlin Coast, Nambour, Maroochydore, Pulgul (Hervey Bay) and Yeppoon.
Yesterday the virus was also detected at Caboolture South, Oxley Creek, Bundamba, Gibson Island, Luggage Point and Maryborough.
Dr Young urged residents in all of those communities to be vigilant about getting tested at the first sign of symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting, and loss of taste or smell.
"While this does not mean we have new cases of COVID-19 in these communities, we are treating these detections seriously," Dr Young said.
"A positive sewage result means that someone who has been infected was shedding the virus.
"Infected people can shed viral fragments and that shedding can happen for several weeks after the person is no longer infectious."
Scientists have found the sewage testing can also detect the genetic fingerprint of the virus up to three weeks before cases are reported through clinical testing of infected people.
There were no new cases of COVID-19 recorded in Queensland today, with 6,309 tests conducted across the state in the last 24 hours.
