Queensland has recorded just one new locally acquired infection on Friday which Annastacia Palaszczuk said was great news because the case was the mother of a boy who tested positive on Thursday and was already in quarantine.
The boy, aged 12, returned from the United States and completed a stint in hotel quarantine in Sydney with mum before flying to Brisbane on Qantas flight 544 last Friday, July 9.
The boy’s father, who met them at the Brisbane airport and went to work for one day while infectious at Rowland Financial Advisors in Cotton Tree, also tested positive.
The family has been found to have the same Delta virus strain that has been circulating in Sydney.
Queensland Health added new exposure sites on the Sunshine Coast related to the father’s movements and urged people who had visited these locations to isolate and get tested:
- Monday 12 July: Café 37, Ground Floor, 37 The Esplanade Cotton Tree, 1pm to 1.05pm
- Monday 12 July: Maroochy Day and Night Pharmacy, 107-109 Aerodrome Rd, Maroochydore, 6.07pm to 6.11pm
- Monday 12 July: Chemist Warehouse, 64-70 Aerodrome Rd Maroochydore, 6.13pm to 6.20pm
- Monday 12 July: Kunara Organic Marketplace (Fruit and Vegetables section), 330 Mons Rd, Forest Glen, 6.34pm 6.38pm
- Wednesday 14 July: Café 37, Ground Floor, 37 The Esplanade, Cotton Tree, 9.30am to 9.40am
- Wednesday 14 July: Café 37, Ground Floor, 37 The Esplanade, Cotton Tree, 12.50pm to 1.05pm
Dr Young said health authorities would investigate how the boy picked up Sydney’s Delta strain after he and his mother travelled directly from hotel quarantine in Sydney to Queensland.
Genome sequencing confirmed he was carrying the same strain responsible for Sydney’s outbreak which has since spread to Victoria and caused a five-day lockdown there.
Dr Young says 62 contacts of that family have been identified.
She is continuing to try to determine the source of a third case that was reported on Thursday, involving a woman who works as a supervisor at one of the boarding gates at the Brisbane International Airport.
So far no whole matches have been found via genomic sequencing so the source of that infection remains a mystery, but it is definitely the Delta strain.
So far 45 close and casual contacts of that airport worker have been identified, and they are being closely monitored and are isolating.
Dr Young says tests have confirmed that the family of three and the airport worker are new outbreaks, and not linked to other outbreaks that sent southeast Queensland and Townsville into a snap three-day lockdown just over a fortnight ago.
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Meanwhile Queensland will close its border to people from Victoria from 1am Saturday, as the southern state’s coronavirus outbreak continues to spread.
Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland had no choice but to declare Victoria a hotspot, due to the worsening situation there.
“Anyone returning after that time will have to do 14 days of mandatory quarantine,” the premier said.
She told Queenslanders: “Do not go to NSW, do not go to Victoria during this period.”
—with AAP
