Queensland has recorded 25 flu-related deaths so far this year and Chief Health Officer John Gerrard is warning a third COVID-19 wave is also now hitting the state.
Dr Gerrard said 624 people were in Queensland public hospital beds yesterday with the flu or COVID-19.
"That's effectively an entire teaching hospital taken out of the system with these two viruses," he said.
Dr Gerrard said Queensland was also experiencing an epidemic of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), with the biggest problems occurring in children.
Combined epidemics of flu, COVID-19 and RSV are expected to place unprecedented pressures on the state's hospitals this winter.
Hospital admissions because of COVID-19 have been on the rise throughout June, with Dr Gerrard saying 38 per cent of genomically sequenced cases in Queensland were the newer BA-4 and BA-5 Omicron sub-variants.
"Just three or four weeks ago, it was under 2 per cent," he said.
"We are now in another established wave of COVID-19 due to the BA-4 and BA-5 sub-variants.
"There'll be a stress on the hospitals in the next few weeks as more and more people get admitted."
Dr Gerrard urged Queenslanders aged over 65, and those who were immunocompromised, to ensure they received their fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
"We have data now that shows people over the age of 65 who have only received three doses of the vaccine are twice as likely to die as those who have received a fourth dose," he said.
"We don't respond as well to new viruses once we pass the age of 40 — that effect increases as we get older, even if we are physically well."
Ask your doctor about COVID antivirals, CHO says
Since the pandemic began, Queensland has recorded 1,199 COVID-19 deaths, all but seven of them occurring during the Omicron wave.
Dr Gerrard urged Queenslanders to discuss their eligibility for COVID-19 anti-viral medications with their general practitioners, saying access to the drugs had vastly improved in recent weeks.
Queenslanders aged over 65 with two or more risk factors and adults who are moderately to severely immunocompromised are eligible, along with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged over 50 with at least two medical conditions.
Risk factors include being under-vaccinated for COVID, being an aged care resident, obesity, chronic kidney failure, living in remote parts of the state with reduced access to higher-level health care, congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease and scarring of the liver.
"[The antivirals] need to be taken within the first five days of the illness," Dr Gerrard said.
"They're not for everybody, so for a younger person without medical problems they're probably of no benefit.
"But in the older age group, in particular — those over the age of 65 — and people who are immunosuppressed, they are of value."
Mandates to be wound back
In a wide-ranging interview with the ABC, Dr Gerrard defended the decision to wind back vaccine mandates for specific occupations, such as teachers, from Thursday, as part of a shift towards personal responsibility.
"We're entering a different phase of the pandemic," he said.
Dr Gerrard hinted that mask mandates on public transport, in aged care, and in health settings might also be lifted in the coming weeks or months.
"That will end when the public health emergency ends," Dr Gerrard said, adding the decision would be one for Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath.
"I imagine that would end sometime in the next few weeks or couple of months," he said.
"The public health emergency will not continue forever.
"Having said that, individual hospitals may still mandate masks in the hospital environment independent of the directions."
'So far I've escaped it'
Queensland was the first Australian state to declare a public health emergency on January 29, 2020, in response to the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Dr Gerrard, an infectious disease physician before he became Chief Health Officer late last year, said he was yet to be infected with coronavirus.
"I'm not sure why," he said.
"Some people just don't seem to get it, and so far I've escaped it.
"My wife and her twin sister have both had it, living in the same household as me.
"I don't think I'm any more cautious than the average Queenslander."
'Not too late to get a flu shot'
Dr Gerrard said Queensland's free flu vaccination program for those aged six months and older ends on Thursday.
He said it was still not too late to get a flu shot.
Almost 30,000 Queenslanders have been diagnosed with the flu so far in 2022, more than three times the five-year average at this stage of the year.
"There's a lot of influenza in the community," Dr Gerrard said.
"Unvaccinated people with influenza are very often much sicker than vaccinated people with COVID-19.
"Let's not underestimate it — influenza is a bad disease.
Queensland Health data yesterday showed there were seven people in public hospital ICUs with COVID-19, five of them on ventilators.
Ten people were in public ICUs with the flu.
