Queensland has recorded the deaths of 18 more people with COVID-19.
It is the highest number of deaths from COVID reported during a reporting period and falls on the second anniversary of the first case being detected in the state.
There are now 818 people in hospital after contracting the virus, down slightly from yesterday, and of those patients 54 are in intensive care units.
There were 9,974 new infections reported.
Twelve of the latest deaths were residents in aged care facilities.
Of those that died, six were unvaccinated, including a person in their 30s, nine had received two doses of vaccine and three had received boosters.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the number of people in hospital had continued to decline.
"We were initially expecting in the worst-case scenario 5,000 beds across Queensland would be needed," she said.
"Our most likely scenario was around 3,000 and as you know what we're reporting at the moment is under 1,000. This is encouraging.
"Our worst-case scenario, we were looking at around 500 beds that would be needed for the ICU [intensive care units] and at the moment of course that's tracking just above 50."
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath sought to correct misinformation she said was being spread about the link between vaccination rates and deaths.
She said 8 per cent of eligible Queenslanders were unvaccinated, yet they made up between 20 and 30 per cent of deaths.
"When Dr Gerrard and I visited Redcliffe hospital yesterday and spoke to the ICU staff, they had four people in ICU this week and three of those people were unvaccinated."
The government is opening up more than 50 schools around the state as vaccination hubs for children over the weekend.
"More than 1.3 million Queenslanders have received their boosters and 30 per cent of our five- to 11-year-olds have had the first dose," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Ms Palaszczuk said the state's back-to-school plan would be released in coming days and had "no concern" that it had been delayed.
'We are ready for the peak'
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said as hospitalisations fall in the Gold Coast, the situation in the rest of Queensland was "very stable".
"We know that both intensive care admissions and deaths will lag behind the number of people admitted to hospital," he said.
"Generally the situation is stable, certainly falling on the Gold Coast, and we're expecting further falls elsewhere in Queensland, sometime in the next seven days.
"Today is two years since I saw Queensland's first COVID-19 case on the Gold Coast and never at that time did we expect to see such low numbers of patients in our hospitals or intensive care units as we approached this peak. This is quite extraordinary."
Dr Gerrard said when comparing Queensland's outbreak with that in New South Wales, the state was doing better, but he reminded Queenslanders "this is not over".
"We are ready for the peak," he said.
"So don't go out and celebrate yet but the news at this stage is good."
He said winter could be a "critical time" in the outbreak.
"We don't really know what's going to happen as we hit our coming winter," he said.
"We know that this is predominantly a winter virus [and] that the cooler environment encourages its transmission."
More health workers returning to work
Ms D'Ath said 3,963 health workers were either positive or isolating as a close contact, which is down from 6,048 on January 17.
"That's a 2,000 reduction of health workers now able to be back in the workplace," she said.
"I know police have got some really positive results as well.
"We're hoping that this is starting to be reflected in the broader community, with more staff being able to go to work in distribution centres, abattoirs, our supermarkets."
