In the past week, more than 300,000 cases have been recorded in Australia, but Health Minister Mark Butler believes the true number to be much higher.

Health authorities in Queensland are of the same mind, as new cases in the last 24 hours officially posted yesterday again almost cracked the 10,000 mark at 9650 with 15 people reported dying from the virus.

More than 1000 patients are in hospital with Covid-19 plus another 49 with the flu.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles defended the lack of mask wearing rules, saying the strongest mandate measures were designed to protect people before they had the access to a vaccine.

“Now that we have a vaccine, the set of measures that we put in place are necessarily different, because … this kind of situation is going to continue,” he said.

“The measures that were put in place are the kinds of measures that we can continue to implement when we see these waves.”

Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Dr Omar Khorshid, though, said on Wednesday that state leaders and the federal government need to listen to health experts and implement mask mandates.

It is the only way to bring about change in community behaviour, he said.

“We don’t leave seatbelts as optional. We don’t leave speed limits as optional,” he told reporters in Cairns.

“We know that we have to set rules in order to drive a behaviour that’s important.

“And if indoor masks are important, then unfortunately that means an indoor mask mandate.”

With more than 5000 Australians hospitalised with Covid across the country and health care staff grappling with increasing flu patients, Minister Butler says the latest virus wave is proving to be significant.

But while more than half a million Australians have had a fourth vaccine dose since eligibility was expanded last week, rates for the third booster are lagging.

“The third dose rate just isn’t shifting fast enough,” he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

“There are still more than five million Australians for whom there’s at least six months since they had their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine but have not yet had a third dose.”

Queensland Government figures say 92.8 per cent of Queenslanders are fully vaccinated, with 94.4 per cent receiving their first dose.

The highly infectious and immunity-evading variants of the Omicron strain, BA.4 and BA.5, pose a significant new threat, chief medical officer Paul Kelly said.

Working from home where possible and wearing a mask in crowded places were some of the recommendations from Kelly.

“We know that wearing masks does reduce the spread, protects yourself and protects others,” Kelly said.

“If you’re away from home and indoors in a crowded place I really very strongly suggest that you do wear masks.”

Kelly said wearing a mask would help curb case numbers, protect people and reduce the strain on hospitals.

Health forecasting predicts case numbers will continue to rise over coming months, Kelly said.

“We cannot stop this wave of infections, but we can slow the spread and protect the vulnerable,” he said.

“We have done this before and we can do it again.”

Australia recorded more than 50,000 Covid-19 cases and 75 deaths on Tuesday.