Queensland has recorded 39 COVID deaths, however the latest cases stretch back to mid-January with the Chief Health Officer warning it does not indicate a peak in cases.
There were 5,665 new cases of the virus recorded in the latest reporting period with 382 people in public hospitals, down from 484 on Monday.
A further 26 people are being treated in private hospitals with 33 people in intensive care units, including 17 people on ventilators.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said the reported death toll from today did not indicate a peak in cases, but included data as far back as January 17.
He said 27 of the 39 deaths came from death certificates, which took weeks to come through from the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
"This does not mean there has been a peak in deaths," he said.
"In fact the data shows that the number of deaths from COVID-19 have been fairly steady since the last week of January."
Of the 39 deaths, one person was in their 50s, five in their 60s, 10 in their 70s, 12 in their 80s, 10 in their 90s and one person was aged over 100.
Dr Gerrard said 21 of the deaths occurred in aged care facilities.
That brings the total number of aged care deaths to 229 of the 438 total COVID deaths since the pandemic began.
In the latest reporting period there had been a decline in cases in school-aged children, which included 923 cases in children aged five to 11 and 745 in children aged 12 to 15.
Wellcamp could cost $190m a year to operate
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath defended the building of the Wellcamp quarantine facility, which recently opened.
She said it was a "good investment" and freed up frontline workers from operating hotel quarantine.
It was revealed that $48.8 million was spent on capital costs for the facility and Ms D'Ath said it could cost $190 million over the next year to operate.
She said the facility, west of Brisbane, was necessary to house people who did not have anywhere to quarantine instead of placing them in hospitals.
She questioned the federal government's move for another quarantine facility at Pinkenba, near the Brisbane international airport.
"It's pretty clear on the face of it, that it's going to cost half of what Pinkenba is going to cost, and it's been open far quicker," she said.
"We've waited for two years for them to get off their backsides and help us with hotel quarantine and managing isolation and they've done nothing.
Ms D'Ath said her "only regret" was that the Commonwealth "played politics" and didn't partner with the state government to get Wellcamp up and running
She said had a quarantine facility been built sooner, last year's outbreaks could have potentially been avoided.
"Remember the major outbreaks we had in Australia … came from hotel quarantine arrangements and transporting individuals in NSW, in mid-June."
Shadow Finance Minister Jarrod Bleijie has written to Queensland's Auditor-General, asking him to consider undertaking an audit of the funding arrangements of the Wellcamp facility.
In the letter dated February 16, Mr Bleijie said the government did not go to tender for the project, raising questions about "whether the best value-for-money outcome has been achieved for Queensland taxpayers".
"We want to know the capital, the leasing arrangements, the operational costs," he said.
"We want to know every dollar that this is costing the Queensland taxpayer," he said.
