Authorities believe Queensland's COVID-19 outbreak is much more widespread than previously thought as the state records another nine deaths and 8643 new cases.
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The nine dead were aged in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, while two aged more than 100.
Three were unvaccinated and two had had a booster vaccine, with the premier saying all nine deaths were tragic.
"Any loss of life is a tragedy, and there'll be families out there grieving today and tonight, and I just want to pass on our condolences to the people who have lost their lives," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said there were 749 virus patients in public hospitals and 71 in private hospitals with another 47 people in intensive care.
There were officially 55,078 active COVID-19 cases in Queensland, but Dr Gerrard said a new Gold Coast study indicated there may be even more undetected cases.
He said over consecutive weekends health workers had visited random homes in the region and tested one person at each address.
On January 22, when the Omicron wave was peaking, 20 out of 117 people tested were positive for COVID-19.
Dr Gerrard said only four of those 20 people had any symptoms and only thought they had the virus
"There were people walking around the Gold Coast who had no idea they had COVID-19," he said.
On the following weekend, 11 out of 143 people tested were positive, and of those six reported having COVID-19 symptoms.
The chief health officer said the survey's show that the state's outbreak was likely to be much larger than the figures showed.
"A lot of people that have been infected are completely unaware that they are infected and certainly have not been tested," he said.
Dr Gerrard said study would help work out what proportion of the population had been infected and what sort of immunity that had given the community.
He said it would help create more accurate modelling of future COVID-19 waves in Queensland and nationally.
However, Dr Gerrard said the modelling for winter virus waves was limited because accurate data from the northern hemisphere was unlikely to become available before the onset of winter in Queensland.
"We still have to plan for the worst, that there are likely to be waves of the pandemic. We are particularly concerned about winter," Dr Gerrard said.
The latest figures show that 92.07 per cent of eligible Queenslanders have had one dose of a vaccine and 89.71 per cent have had two jabs, while about 55 per cent have had a booster shot.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath urged more parents to get their children vaccinated before school returns next week.
She said only 35 per cent of five- to-11-year-olds and 67.76 per cent of the 12-15 age group were fully vaccinated.
"We need that number to come up and we want to see that at a high rate," Ms D'Ath said.
Australian Associated Press
