Sixteen people in Qld quarantine hotels this month have ‘variants of concern’

New cases of highly contagious strains of COVID-19 have been detected inside Queensland quarantine hotels almost every day this month, on average.

Queensland Health data obtained by Brisbane Times reveals 16 people were confirmed to have “variants of concern” in the first 17 days of March.

Deep cleaning at a quarantine hotel.Credit: Getty Images

About one-quarter of all 145 COVID-19 cases detected inside hotel quarantine since the start of the year have been “variants of concern”, meaning mutations that have increased transmissibility or the risk of more severe illness.

Twenty-five people have tested positive to the UK variant (B.1.1.7) and eight were confirmed to have the South African variant (B.1.351). Queensland is yet to record a case of the Brazilian variant (P.1).

Genome testing is still under way on the 27 new cases detected since March 17.

Mutant strains of the virus have escaped the confines of quarantine twice since the start of the pandemic but Queensland has managed to avoid any widespread transmission.

A hotel cleaner infected her partner at home with the UK variant in January, triggering Brisbane’s three day lockdown.

In the latest cluster, a “super-spreader”, who was quarantining at the Hotel Grand Chancellor infected a doctor and another guest with the British variant.

Queensland’s top cop ordered CCTV cameras be installed on each level of the state’s 16 quarantine hotels to capture movements in and out of guests’ rooms nine weeks ago, which is yet to be finalised.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said there would likely be more outbreaks from quarantine hotels across the country, although the risk of massive shutdowns was less likely.

She said purpose built quarantine hubs would be needed if the Commonwealth wanted to increase caps on international arrivals.

Premier Annastaica Palaszczuk flagged the risk of a major outbreak would remain “whilst we have hotel quarantine in our major capital cities and whilst we are still allowing large numbers of returning Australians coming home”.

“We are dealing now with highly infectious strains and these strains are spreading in our hotels,” she said.

“Our hotels are not hospitals, they were never meant to prevent the spread of a highly infectious disease.

“We have seen community transmission which has spread in hotels in a lot of jurisdictions across Australia.”

Ms Palaszczuk said a regional quarantine centre proposed for southern Queensland was still front of mind, although talks between herself and Prime Minister Scott Morrison had been put on hold while authorities manage the risk of spread from Papua New Guinea.

Plans to quarantine thousands more international arrivals at a privately built facility near Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport stalled earlier this month as negotiations between state and federal governments hit an impasse.

Ms Palaszczuk told the Prime Minister she “would have a chat to him offline about it” after national cabinet earlier this month but the pair were now “focusing on PNG”.

“That has been the only conversation I have had with the Prime Minister, as you would expect,” she said.

The state government was still awaiting federal government approval to progress plans for the proposed site and the Commonwealth has said it needed more detail from the state.

All of the Queensland’s 54 COVID-19 patients were being treated in hospitals on Sunday, but “there may come a time when that is going to prove difficult”, Ms Palaszczuk warned.

“We just have to see how our hospitals are doing at the moment, and we will have to look at contingency plans,” she said on Friday.

Queensland detected two new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, both in hotel quarantine.