Australian State Warns of Impending COVID-19 ‘Emergency’

Queensland's newly appointed Chief Health Officer Dr. John Gerrard speaks during a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, on Dec. 13, 2021. Dan Peled/Getty Images

Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard has warned that the Australian state will face a “major emergency” in the coming weeks with modelling projecting a peak in cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus around late January, early February.

“We are going to be stepping up to a very major emergency in the coming two to three weeks,” Gerrard told reporters in Brisbane on Jan. 6.