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Health

The end of Queensland's Omicron COVID wave in sight as state records nine more deaths

Chief Health Officer John Gerrard held a media conference with Ms Palaszczuk this morning. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)

A further nine people have died of COVID in Queensland, including six people who were in residential aged care.

Those who died were aged in their 70s and 90s, three were not vaccinated, while the remainder had received either two or three doses.

It comes as 5,795 new infections were recorded, with more than half returning positive results on rapid antigen tests.

There are 384 people in public hospitals, up slightly from 382 yesterday, including 33 in intensive care units.

Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said Queensland was "heading towards" the end of its wave of cases.

"Effectively we'll come to the end at the end of this month," he said.

"What happens in the tail and beyond, that is still somewhat unknown."

Of the new cases, 1,702 school aged children tested positive, up from 1,668 yesterday.

But Dr Gerrard said most, "if not all", were experiencing mild illness.

"There's been no increase at all in the number of hospitalisations among children since school's resumed last week," he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said as long as cases continued to trend downward, current restrictions would be reviewed before the end of this month.

"We will work through what those easing of restrictions will look like," she said.

Power rebate for Queenslanders

In response to more people being at home during the pandemic, the state government has announced it will provide a $50 rebate to Queenslanders on their power usage.

Ms Palaszczuk held a media conference this morning to give the latest COVID update. (ABC News: Stephanie Zillman)

Premier Palaszczuk said the initiative was designed to help ease cost-of-living pressures.

"We understand that some households are doing it tough," she said.

"This will be in people's electricity bills they receive in the third quarter of this year."

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