Queensland has recorded its highest number of daily COVID-19 deaths, with 24 people passing away in the latest reporting period.
Of the deaths, 16 were recorded in aged care facilities with 6,902 new COVID-19 cases across the state.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said the age of the people who died were between 50 and 100, with many of those having underlying health conditions.
"But because at their death, they have also tested positive, we do report all of these deaths," Ms D'Ath said.
"Twenty-four deaths in 24 hours, this is a really hard day for the families and loved ones of these individuals."
Hospitalisations have come down from 663 to 628, with 44 people in ICU, 22 of whom are on ventilators.
Ms D'Ath said 534 children between the ages of five and 17 years have tested positive on PCR tests alone.
"We don't envisage that this jump overnight is directly related to school yet because it's very, very early days, and these are PCR results, but we'll continue to report them," she said.
Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said all of the cases in children were "very, very mild".
"We will expect ongoing cases within schools in the coming weeks," Dr Gerrard said.
"We've been looking at the data of infections in children between the ages of five to 17 and there was actually quite substantial transmission … three weeks ago."
ADF support welcome
Speaking from Bundaberg, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk thanked Defence Minister Peter Dutton for sending the Australian Defence Force (ADF) into aged care homes to ease severe staff shortages in the sector.
Ms Palaszczuk said the state had "finally, finally, finally" hit the 90 per cent double-dose vaccination target for people aged 16 years and over.
"It's taken a while – January and February – to get to that point but I'm very excited that it's definitely now at the 90 per cent double dose," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"In fact, it's 92.22 per cent across Queensland with that first dose and I'm so proud."
She said the state had no plans to change COVID vaccine requirements for international arrivals from two jabs to three.
"Queensland will be keeping to the double-vaccination requirement," she said.
"If ATAGI changes that to include the booster, we will absolutely follow suit with Victoria but that is not the case at the moment."
Dr Gerrard said he did not expect a "significant impact" on COVID cases in Queensland when international borders reopened.
"The number of international arrivals is very small compared with the number of cases we've seen in the population of Queensland," Dr Gerrard said.
"We think, so far, by the end of February, it'll be somewhere between at least 1 to 2 million Queenslanders that will have been infected by this virus.
"Many people don't even know that they've been infected, most have had a mild illness but it can, as we know, cause severe illness in some people."
Ms D'Ath said more than 2,100 Queensland Health and ambulance staff were in isolation and quarantine.
That figure was at 6,000 in mid-January.
"That's still a lot of staff that are off in quarantine or isolation but when we compare that to over 6000 on the 18th of January, this is showing a real improvement in the community," she said.
No plans to reduce more restrictions
Dr Gerrard said Queensland only had three restrictions in place at the moment, including mask-wearing, vaccination requirements at some venues, and isolation requirements when COVID-positive, and there were no immediate plans to change these.
"These restrictions, at least in my mind are not particularly onerous restrictions, obviously we continue to look at them as we head into winter," he said.
Ms D'Ath said they were "constantly looking at the circumstances".
"But as I said a couple of days ago, school has just gone back, we have asked people to go back into the workplace. This will lead to an increase in transmission again," she said.
"The Prime Minister announced yesterday international arrivals ... we'll see transmission happening, we just need to do this carefully.
"There's very few restrictions in place, but those mandatory vaccination rules around high risk settings are there for a reason and I believe have contributed significantly to the positive results we've seen in Queensland."
