COVID-19 Aug 8-14: Recovery plan progresses in a week of no community cases

Published Monday, 17 August, 2020 at 08:20 AM

Premier and Minister for Trade
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

Friday August 14: More funding packages have been rolled out this week to progress Queensland’s COVID-19 Unite and Recover plan, while pharmacy testing locations will be trialled to help maintain the public’s excellent health response to the virus threat.

Three new (non-community) cases were reported from Saturday to Friday, leaving eight active cases, 1076 recovered and a total of 1091 as at Friday August 14.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said all five million Queenslanders shared in this result, with the threat still existing in other states and other countries.

“And it’s going to take all five million of us to keep it up, with social distancing, hand hygiene and getting tested when feeling sick,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

The Premier said the trial of testing in pharmacies will increase testing capability, further assisting to Queenslanders’ great effort in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

At the same time, the Health Minister revealed that wait times for elective and emergency care in Queensland hospitals have improved despite the pandemic.

“Long waits were expected to peak at 7,000, but our $250 million elective surgery blitz saw them drop to just 2,774 by the end of June,” he said.

“And despite seeing nearly half a million emergency patients, the median wait was 10 minutes in the quarter to June 2020, down from 15 minutes in the same period last year.”

Also this week:

  • A $220 million state school refurbishment program will create hundreds of jobs.
  • $50 million in council projects are also part of the state’s economic recovery plan.
  • A multi-million-dollar round of funding will go towards job-assisting community projects.
  • $6.45 million in funding will back more than 30 research projects to combat COVID.

CASES – by Health District – as at August 14

Active: 8  Recovered: 1076  Total: 1091  Tests: 716,420

ANNOUNCEMENTS THIS WEEK

HEALTH DIRECTIONS

covid19.qld.gov.au