Angry business owner takes contact tracing into own hands

A Queensland business owner angered by the State Government's decision to pull back its contact tracing and list of exposure sites has started her own Facebook page to inform the community herself.

"I don't like saying that it's spreading everywhere. But the best thing we can sort of do is just keep aware," business owner Danica Clayton told A Current Affair.

"I did not expect it to grow that much given how … we were at COVID-zero … and now it's just insane."

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Ms Clayton said she wanted a way to give Queensland their own way to contact trace.

"It's really picked up over the last week," she said.

Before recently, Queensland had a very small number of active COVID-19 numbers.

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But now the border has opened, that has all changed.

"Today in Queensland we have 2222 new cases to report," Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard told media this morning at a press conference.

In less than three weeks, the state has surged to over 8500 active cases.

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"We're not going to be talking about 8000 cases in a few weeks. We're going to be talking about tens of thousands of cases. That's what a pandemic is about," Dr Gerrard said.

"We need to move on. We are not going to stop the Omicron virus.

"If we attempt to isolate every casual contact of everyone with COVID-19 in Queensland, then everyone will be in quarantine.

"If we keep using our current settings, then soon all of us will be in quarantine and the state won't function. That is why the settings, I believe, should change."

Eighty per cent of the Queensland cases are now Omicron.

It's spreading so fast the Queensland Government has pulled back on contact tracing and listing exposure sites.

But it's clear many people would still like to know where cases are coming from and so far Ms Clayton's Facebook page has more than 55,000 followers.

One of them is mum of two Tara Franklin, who is double vaccinated but caught COVID-19.

"I suppose it came from frustration from myself because I couldn't work out where it (the virus) came from for me, so this was my way of giving back to the community," she said.

Since the border opened, more than 440,000 people have flooded into Queensland.

Tourism operators like Gordon Kerr, who hires out these electric boats on the Gold Coast, is happy to see people visiting.

"The numbers are certainly scary when you compare it to a few weeks ago but what I've got to say is, isn't this why we all went out and got our vaccines?" Mr Kerr said.

Flight Centre boss Graham Turner, who lives in Queensland, isn't fazed by the surging case numbers.

"It would be much better to trust people to make sure if they have the disease, they self-test and they isolate themselves, just as you would if you had the flu," Mr Turner said.

Today Prime Minister Scott Morrison also announced a new definition for what a close contact is, essentially making it harder to be classified that way.

"You are only a close contact if you are, effectively, living with someone or have been in an accommodation setting with someone for more than four hours with someone who has actually got COVID - is not someone who is in contact with someone who has had COVID," Mr Morrison said.

Arif Mendes knows all too well how close contacts can shut down a business.

His Brisbane restaurant was one of the first to be affected in the pandemic when border hoppers visited his site while infected.

"The COVID cases, contact tracing — we've lost staff because of vaccine mandates … I never thought in my wildest dreams I would go through something like this. It's terrible," he said.

"There needs to be a new approach and quick".