There are now 11,741 active cases of the virus in Queensland, with 1776 new cases added to the list on Wednesday.

With 240 people receiving hospital care, numbers in ICU are stable at eight where they have remained since Monday.

News of the latest death toll comes as health ministers have announced the release of Covid case numbers will now be done on a weekly basis rather than daily.

The weekly figures, to be consistently reported across jurisdictions, will include case numbers, new and total deaths, vaccination rates and hospital data, which will contain a breakdown of ICU and ventilated patients.

In other pandemic related news, Queensland Health workers and ambulance staff get 20 additional days of paid sick leave if they contract Covid.

The new paid pandemic leave arrangement will also be applied retrospectively, meaning employees who have contracted Covid since December 13 last year will be able to use pandemic leave and have their sick leave credited back to them.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the leave arrangements were amended to ensure health and ambulance workers were not unduly impacted if they were infected.

“Our hospital and health staff have a higher risk than most people of being exposed to the virus, so it’s important they are supported with appropriate policies,” she said.

“Under current arrangements, staff must use their sick leave before accessing pandemic leave.

“We are changing that so they can access their pandemic leave as soon as they test positive to Covid-19.”

D’Ath said the arrangements would also apply to health and ambulance staff who take leave to care for family or other household members with Covid in recognition of the sacrifices they have made.

“Queensland Health and QAS have led our pandemic response over the past two and a half years and the staff of both organisations have done an amazing job of protecting Queenslanders,” she said.