Queensland has recorded 39 Covid deaths, the most fatalities recorded in a single day since the pandemic began.
The 5665 new virus cases emerged after 15,151 tests across the state in the 24 hours to 6.30am on Thursday.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says the deaths did not all occur on in the previous 24 hours with 27 historical and occurring as far back as mid-January.
He says every pandemic death is tragic, but the spike in deaths does not indicate any upward trend.
Queensland has recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic with 39 deaths
There were also 5665 new virus cases after 15,151 tests across the state in the 24 hours to 6.30am on Thursday
‘I really must emphasize this does not mean there has been a peak in deaths, there has not been,’ Dr Gerrard told reporters on Thursday.
‘In fact the data clearly shows that the number of deaths from Covid have been falling steadily since the last week of January as we have passed the peak, OK.
‘That’s a critical piece of information, so these these these every death of course is tragic, but … most of these cases did occur several weeks ago that does not indicate a sudden peaking cases.’
The chief health officer one of the dead people was aged in their 50s, five were in their 60s, 10 were in their 70s, 12 were in their 80s, 10 were in their 90s and one person was over 100-year-olds.
Five were unvaccinated, two had had one jab, 16 had had two doses, two had had a booster vaccine and the vaccine status of the others wasn’t available.
Meanwhile, there’s 382 virus patients in Queensland public hospitals with another 33 in intensive care and 16 people on ventilators. There’s another 26 COVID-19 patients in private hospitals.
Dr Gerrard said the number of patients in hospital continues to ‘drop dramatically’ and is down by 100 from Monday.
Dr John Gerrard said the high number of fatalities did not signal an upwards trend
