As authorities report a further nine people have died from COVID-19 in Queensland, with 8,643 new cases confirmed, it has been revealed a significant number of Gold Coasters probably don't know they have COVID-19.
That's according to the state's Chief Health Officer, John Gerrard, who said at today's news conference there were 749 people in Queensland hospitals with COVID-19 and 47 on ventilators.
Dr Gerrard said the latest deaths again highlighted the fact that not enough people were getting booster shots.
"Of these nine people, three are unvaccinated, one had received a single dose of vaccine, four had received two doses and only one of the nine had received a booster," he said.
"One person [who died was] in their 60s, two in their 70s, three in their 80s one in their 90s and two people were aged over 100."
Dr Gerrard said the number of hospitalisations continued to trend downward.
"This includes 46 people in intensive care, 23 of whom are on ventilators and that's again down from 49 on Wednesday.
"In our private hospitals, we had 71 patients being treated with COVID-19 down from 74 on Wednesday."
Some Gold Coasters don't know they have COVID-19
Dr Gerrard said a significant number of people in the Gold Coast community have COVID-19 but don't know it.
"There were people walking around the Gold Coast who had no idea that they had COVID-19," Dr Gerrard said.
"This is quite extraordinary and that was probably at the peak of the pandemic, that's where we calculated the peak of the pandemic to be."
He said this was revealed in recent randomised testing of Gold Coast households.
Dr Gerrard said the latest deaths again highlighted the fact that not enough people were getting booster shots.
He said the Gold Coast Public Health unit had been testing random households on the Gold Coast to get a clearer picture of how the virus is spreading through the community.
"It's the first time anyone has attempted to do this in this country," Dr Gerrard said.
"Addresses of Gold Coast residents were randomised using a computer and then staff from the Gold Coast public health units in collaboration with the universities here on the Gold Coast.
"Griffith, Bond and Southern Cross universities, including students as well, knocked on the doors of people and ask them if they could be tested."
Of the 117 people tested during the survey on January 22, 20 returned positives results.
"That's one in six people on that one day," Dr Gerrard said.
But only four of the 20 people who tested positive reported having any symptoms, prompting Dr Gerrard to reiterated the importance of masks.
'We still have to plan for the worst'
Dr Gerrard said the survey was conducted again a week later and 143 people were tested, with 11 returning positive results.
"Nine out of 11 on the second survey did not know they were positive, so it just shows a couple of things.
"First of all, it's indicated that the pandemic peak has passed here on the Gold Coast, but also a lot of people that have been infected are completely unaware that they are infected and certainly have not been tested."
Dr Gerrard said the data will help health authorities understand the true proportion of the community that has been infected with COVID-19.
He said he expects a third of Queensland's population to have COVID-19 by the end of the month.
"There'll be further statistics and work done on this in the coming weeks both locally and nationally.
"We are still planning for further waves of the pandemic. I think we still have to plan for the worst."
Coroner to investigate aged care death
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death of a Queensland aged care resident is under investigation by the State Coroner's office, ABC News can reveal.
A Queensland Coroners Court spokesperson said a coronial registrar has been investigating the resident's death due to concerns he may have needed an earlier transfer to hospital.
No other details were released about the man's death or in which Queensland facility it occurred.
"There have been no reports of aged care resident deaths received to date [that were] due to concerns about their access to COVID-19 vaccinations and/or boosters,'' the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
The spokesman said the death of an aged care resident will be reportable to the coroner only if it falls under the reportable death categories in the Coroners Act 2003.
"In practice, deaths of aged care residents are most commonly reported because they died following a fall with injury or because a GP is not willing or available to issue a cause of death certificate,'' the spokesperson said.
Over the past 14 months, the deaths of some aged care residents' who have died after they developed COVID-19 symptoms or tested positive have been reported to the Coroner, the spokesperson said.
"[However] this has been incidental or unrelated to the reason why their death was reported," the spokesperson said.
"Similarly, some aged care resident deaths have been reported simply because they died proximate to [as opposed to from] a recent COVID-19 vaccination.''
