Queensland has 90.93 per cent of people with one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 87.26 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.

A total of 624,328 people have received a booster shot.

On Thursday,Chief Health Officer John Gerrard warnedhospital staff would be reallocated and elective surgeries would be pulled back in preparation for a “major emergency” to hit the health system in two to three weeks.

There were 57,343 people waiting for elective surgery in Queensland and about 300 intensive care beds in the state’s public hospital system.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the hospital had a five-tier escalation system,with most hospitals operating at present on tiers one to three.

“[That] means that we’re taking measures to deal with staff shortages and bed capacity,” she said.

“We are currently looking at whether we go to that next level of suspending elective surgery across our hospital system as we go towards that surge and the peak of that surge over the coming weeks.”

Dr Gerrard said the peak was expected at the end of January and start of February.

“We are expecting very substantial numbers of that intermediate group of patients who might require a relatively short stay in hospital,might require oxygen,might require dexamethasone but not requiring the critical care,” he said.

“We will have much bigger numbers of critical care patients at the peak of this wave,I’ve no doubt about that.”

Ms Palaszczuk said a “care army” who would check on elderly and vulnerable people would be reactivated.

She urged employers to have people work from home.

With healthcare systems in most Australian states under pressure,people were not required to validate positive rapid antigen tests with a PCR test,Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week.

TheVictorian government has suspended elective surgery at public and private hospitals in Melbourne and major regional cities to manage the increase in COVID-19 patients.

In NSW,nightclubs would be shut,singing and dancing would be banned in pubs and major events and some elective surgeries would also bepaused.