NATALIE BARR:
Now, Queensland Health has come under fire for releasing wrong information about a supposed, supposed COVID house party at the centre of the latest outbreak. Authorities had accused an infected man of hosting a party for 25 people while awaiting results. Now, they say only five more people were home, and they were mostly housemates.
DAVID KOCH:
Now, the bungle comes as the state records it's third case linked to the outbreak. It's left travellers and tourism operators, certainly, on edge as the Easter long weekend approaches, and all the school holidays. The possibility of yet another lockdown has not been ruled out.
NATALIE BARR:
For more Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, joins us now. Morning to you. How confident are you that authorities are on top of this cluster?
PAUL KELLY:
Morning, Nat. Morning, Kochie. So, we're very confident that things are going well up in Queensland. They got onto this very quickly, they've done a very thorough investigation, and most importantly, a lot of Queenslanders came out and got tested on the weekend - so that's going to be very helpful.
So far, so good. It's just those three cases - two cases and one historic one, all very closely related.
DAVID KOCH:
Good one.
PAUL KELLY:
So, we're not out of this yet. They'll need to keep doing that investigation, but so far, so good.
DAVID KOCH:
But Paul, it comes at a time when so many Australians want to get out and enjoy the country. A lot of uncertainty ahead of the Easter break and school holidays. What's your advice to travellers? Mark McGowan in Perth is saying: rethink your travel to Queensland.
PAUL KELLY:
Well, it is a tricky time, because Easter is coming up, a lot of people will be on the move. Look, the coming days will really tell whether this is an issue that is going to be ongoing, or it's just a short-term thing. This is the new reality in Australia, I think, at the moment - that we are mostly open. Most of the, well, all of the borders were open until a few days ago, as we've seen, and, as you've just shown, lots of dancing and singing in Sydney for the first time in a long time. So, that does bring - bring some risk here in terms of the spread of the virus if it does get out into the community. So, for the moment we can keep going.
DAVID KOCH:
[Talks over] But also, it puts the focus, puts the focus on the vaccine roll out. How many are we doing a day? Are enough people getting vaccinated?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, this week is a, is a real watershed. From today, in fact, our first vaccines that have been produced locally, and that is many hundreds of thousands per week, will be rolling off that production line in Melbourne. Did roll off last week, they've been delivered to GPs and state territory clinics this week. So, there'll be a big ramp up this week and in coming weeks, and that's going to be a very important way out of this pandemic in Australia.
NATALIE BARR:
Yeah. Because when we say we're not in a hurry…
DAVID KOCH:
[Talks over] We are.
NATALIE BARR:
… a lot of people would like it to go quicker. [Laughter]
NATALIE BARRY:
We know you're doing your best, but yeah, go for it. Thank you very much, Professor. We appreciate your time.
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