[LINK] O/T: "Queensland may never beat coronavirus"

[Stephen Loosley]

Queensland may never beat coronavirus, experts say, as 42 cases remain untraceable

By Kerrin Binnie and Rachel Riga  Updated 1 hour ago  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-19/coronavirus-queensland-epidemiological-link/12259336


Queenslanders are being warned not to assume we have beaten coronavirus and "it is unlikely that we will, ever" despite a large drop in cases.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said 42 Queensland cases of COVID-19 have no traceable source, including an infected nurse working at a Rockhampton aged care facility.

"These are the cases that worry me," Dr Young said.

"This is why we cannot assume we have beaten this virus — we haven't.

"It is unlikely that we will, ever.

"We'll have to find ways of managing it and the hope of course is for a vaccine to assist us in that."

Queensland has moved to stage one relaxation of restrictions with small groups of people allowed to dine at restaurants, cafes or pubs.

Dr Young said the infected nurse was the only case in the past two weeks where an epidemiological link had not been established.

"We know we are getting cases out there in the community," she said.

"We had more cases earlier on, when we were having those 60 cases a day where [we] couldn't find epi links."

Dr Young warned people not to become complacent.

"If you have respiratory symptoms there's every chance it is more likely due to COVID-19 than it is due to anything else," she said.

"We do know that people can have asymptomatic disease — no symptoms at all — and can spread the virus.

"Townsville's not had a case for quite a while [so] don't think 'I live in Townsville, therefore I don't have to worry that that sore throat and that cough [means] that I've got COVID', it could very easily be COVID.

"In actual fact, we have possibly got more respiratory disease in our state at the moment due to COVID-19 than we do due to flu."

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Blakely said Queensland was not in a bad position if it only had one untraceable case of COVID-19 in the past fortnight.

"It's a concern but it's nowhere near as bad as some other places with more of those cases occurring in the last two weeks," he said.

"It is still possible if Queensland keeps its borders really locked, and goes really hard on contact tracing that maybe they'll get rid of all the community transmission.

"What you can say with some confidence is in places where you've still got community transmission and you're opening up, you're going out more, you've got bigger group size meetings, [the] chance of that community transmission taking off is real.

"What happens in Queensland, only time will tell."

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state's border with New South Wales could remain closed until at least September.