Only one new locally acquired case has been discovered in Queensland an another five infections of overseas arrivals in hotel quarantine.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it great news as the single new infection was linked to the existing Alpha cluster associated with the Brisbane man who holidayed on the Sunshine Coast.
The latest case was a female close contact of the 29-year-old Sinnamon Park man who visited a number of sites at Eumundi, Sunshine Beach and Noosa.
Dr Jeannette Young said the woman, who was asymptomatic, lives at Kangaroo Point and was a student nurse at Griffith University who has been doing placement at Logan Hospital.
However it’s believed she had not been at the uni campus since June 15 because of the holiday break and had only spent one hour at the hospital visiting a patient when masks were mandatory.
The patient has returned a negative test seven days after their interaction.
“I’m not particularly concerned but we will go and double check, if she develops any symptoms going forward that will help us determine the actual infectious period,” she said.
“So I apologise, it’s a very complicated story, I’m just trying to point out that this is one community acquired case, and I believe it is low risk but we are as always, of course taking it very, very seriously, and looking at all potential exposure sites.”
The chief health officer said 6664 people had been identified as contacts of active virus cases with 5177 people in home isolation and 3000 in hotel quarantine.
“So we’ve got a lot of people doing a lot of hard work in terms of all of those contacts, and thank you to all of the people who are adhering to those requirements to be in home quarantine and to continue to get tested when they’re asked to,” Dr Young said.
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Ms Palaszczuk said 22,218 tests were done in the previous reporting period, bringing the total number of Queensland tests since the start of the pandemic to 3 million.
Meanwhile Deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski said although most Queenslanders were doing the right thing, a woman had tried to escape from hotel quarantine in Cairns.
The woman from Sydney had flown to Cairns on July 1 and disappeared some time before she was noticed missing on Monday 5 June.
Investigations and CCTV reveal she scaled two balconies, an outside staircase and kicked in a door before making a run for it and being discovered at her mother’s house on Monday.
The woman remains in the custody of police and is facing charges.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed Queensland’s state vaccine hubs would be getting an extra 10,000 Pfizer doses per week in July compared to June.
The Federal Government will also provide 168,480 Pfizer doses to Queensland GPs in July.
Ms D’Ath said state clinics and GPs would start clearing a backlog of 230,000 people waiting to get vaccinated and 140,000 people who have registered.
“Yes, people can start looking at where there is a GP to book for Pfizer or an AstraZeneca vaccine throughout July, or they can continue to look at booking in with a state-run clinic into the future, and we encourage people to do that, and we will contact everyone who has already registered to let them know when bookings are available,” she said.
— with AAP
