North Queensland told to factor COVID-19 into cyclone season prep

“It’s no good excluding people from shelters in case they’ve got COVID only for them to be killed by a cyclone. The risk of a cyclone is the more immediate threat.”

Cairns and the northern region of the state have not had a large amount of cases even at the height of the pandemic, and there is believed to be no community transmission at the moment.

Even so, Dr Gair said they were doing contingency planning for all scenarios, in the event that case numbers rose in the next few months.

“We’ve looked at what we would need to do in the situation as it stands now, what we would need to do if there was limited transmission, and what would we do if there is widespread community transmission,” he said.

“In terms of protecting people…