Another 49 locally-acquired COVID-19 cases have emerged in Queensland with face masks recommended indoors and concerns about a potential Omicron superspreader event.
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The new cases emerged after 13,595 tests in the 24 hours to 6.30am on Monday, however only one unvaccinated case has been seriously ill but is recovering.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the jump is expected with 197,546 border passes issued for people from interstate COVID-19 hotspots in the past week.
She's recommending people wear face masks in all indoor settings, but they're only mandated in essential retailers and hospitals.
"We strongly recommend that you wear your mask in an indoor setting, so we're not mandating it but I will be wearing my mask when I go in and out of cafes or restaurants, and when you're sitting there you can take your mask off," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.
"This is just an added precaution until we get to that 90 per cent fully vaccinated."
Of the 49 new local cases, 16 were linked to a known case, nine were interstate-acquired and 24 were under investigation.
Another 10 cases were recorded in quarantine with at least one of those overseas-acquired.
Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says 13 cases are Omicron and eight cases are Delta with the other 38 unknown
They're spread across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Townsville, with Dr Gerrard concerned about a potential Omicron superspreader event in Brisbane last Monday.
More than 2670 people attended the Griffith University graduation ceremony for nurses and paramedics at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on that day.
The chief health officer said there were already 15 cases, including some of the Omicron variant, and more were expected.
"Some of these cases have been identified as Omicron, so it's likely that the whole episode will be the Omicron cluster," he said.
There are 66 people in hospital and 32 being treated at home, but only one COVID-19 patient has been moderately ill during the last week, but she was unvaccinated and is recovering.
The chief health officer said it was likely the hospital and ICU numbers would pick up over coming weeks, due to the lag time on virus symptoms developing.
"So it will be very instructive to learn in the next one to two weeks, what pattern we see in the hospitals," he said.
"There is no one in intensive care in hospitals at the moment."
Dr Gerrard also defended saying it was "necessary" for the virus to spread throughout the state on Saturday.
He explained that spread would give everyone some level of immunity to make COVID-19 endemic like past pandemic diseases.
"It's necessary because this virus ultimately needs to become endemic in the community before we can move on," he said.
"Eventually all of us will develop some degree of immunity to this virus, and probably the virus will become less virulent.
"That's the nature of how new viruses are introduced into the community. That's what's happened previously, with influenza pandemics."
The latest figures on Sunday, showed 84.51 per cent of Queenslanders are fully vaccinated and 89.67 per cent have had at least one jab.
Australian Associated Press
