Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard has reassured parents they should not be anxious about children being infected with COVID-19
on Monday and vaccinations opened for children aged five to 11, Dr Gerrard said cases of children falling “terribly ill” to the virus were rare.
“There are definitely rare complications of COVID-19 in children, I’m not going to downplay it, but for the vast majority it is a simple respiratory virus, like a virus they would have had in the past.” “In reality, the biggest risk is not to the children themselves. It’s the people around them, to their parents and their grandparents,” he said.“So as much as anything else, these two extra weeks give us an opportunity for others who might be at risk to get that third dose [of vaccine].Queensland schools would remain closed to most students for an extra two weeks in anticipation of a peak in Omicron cases to hit at the end of this month and into the first week of February.