Queensland health authorities are investigating whether a COVID-19 infected traveller in hotel quarantine has links to an infected Brisbane hospital doctor.
The traveller was staying at the Hotel Grand Chancellor on the same floor at the same time as another infected traveller who’s now at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
That patient had contact with a doctor who later became infected with coronavirus, forcing the hospital into lockdown.
“Case one is the person brought into the hospital on the 9th of March, case two was the doctor who got it off the person who came in on the 9th,” Health Minister Yvette D’Ath told reporters.
“Case three is a person in hotel quarantine on the same floor as case one.
Ms D’Ath said officials were assessing CCTV footage to try to identify “why this transmission might have occurred”.
The hotel has been locked down and guests and staff have been prevented from leaving.
No new guests will be checked into the site until the health officials have completed their investigation.
Meanwhile, 238 people linked to the infected doctor have been traced, with virus test results due back in the coming days, Deputy Chief Health Officer Sonya Bennett said.
Three close contacts of the female doctor have all tested negative.
She had contact with two patients infected with the highly contagious UK strain of the virus in the early hours of Wednesday and tested positive on Friday.
One of the patients is likely to have passed on the virus, Dr Bennett said.
She said genomic testing also showed one of the patients may be linked to the case being investigated at the hotel, which was diagnosed on day 12 of the traveller’s 14-day quarantine period.
“The information is all a little bit unusual and what we want to rule out is that there’s been any transmission in the hotel,” Dr Bennett said.
She said there could be a number of factors behind the new case at the hotel – which was diagnosed on Saturday – including a late incubation period and the same overseas virus source.
The doctor assessed the patients for admission to the hospital and this would have involved face-to-face contact, Dr Bennett said.
“My understanding is she moved through the hospital depending on where the need was,” she said.
The PA remains in lockdown and all hospitals, aged care and disability facilities in the Greater Brisbane area are closed to visitors, and masks must be worn inside them.
