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Queensland detects eight new COVID-19 cases
By Lydia Lynch, Toby Crockford and Matt Dennien
Queensland recorded eight new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday including two more health workers, taking the latest cluster in the state to above 40.
The last time eight or more cases were recorded in the state in a 24-hour reporting period was on August 22 and before that, April 18.
Queensland Health has advised people with even mild symptoms to get tested. Credit: Lydia Lynch
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said seven of Wednesday's eight new cases were already in quarantine when they tested positive.
Five of those people are from one family and are linked to the outbreak at the Queensland Correctional Services Academy.
"They are members of the same family from one household and were already in quarantine when they were diagnosed," Ms Palaszczuk said.
The other three new cases were linked to an outbreak at Ipswich Hospital, south-west of Brisbane.
The total cases in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and Corrections Academy cluster now sits at 43 — seven of these are staff at the hospital.
Of those linked to the hospital, two are healthcare workers who were already in quarantine, and the third is one of their children.
The health worker's child is a year 11 student at St Edmund’s College in Ipswich. The school wrote to families on Tuesday that it would close "immediately" and for at least 48 hours for contact tracing and deep cleaning.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, principal Ray Celegato said the student was receiving great care and had only been attending the campus for end-of-term exams, with the number of other students at risk deemed to be "low".
The school was now working to reschedule exams but was likely to be closed until next week.
"We’re accepting advice from Queensland Health. If we can reschedule to next week we will, otherwise we’ll look at other opportunities," Mr Celegato said.
The school, which has about 1000 students and 150 staff members, is across the road from all-girls high school St Mary’s College and a primary school. St Mary’s has not been directed to close.
Staines Memorial College in Redbank Plains, also south-west of Brisbane, closed for 14 days last weekend with three cases at the school linked to the recent south-east cluster.
Ms Palaszczuk said health authorities were on top of the latest outbreaks.
"From the outset, I want to assure Queenslanders that although that number is our highest daily tally for some time, each of those people diagnosed is related to existing cases and seven of them were in quarantine at the time they were diagnosed," she told State Parliament.
"This is not a time for alarm – this is a time for thanks that our testing system is so professional and Queenslanders are so vigilant that we have had remarkable success at containing this virus."
Queensland now has 29 active cases after another four people recovered and were discharged from hospital. The state's total stands at 1143 confirmed cases and 990,944 tests have been conducted.
"In the past 24 hours, 12,075 samples were undertaken as Queenslanders stepped forward to get tested and I urge people to keep getting tested," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Meanwhile, students who board at Queensland schools but live in areas of the ACT or NSW where there are no active cases of COVID-19 will be allowed to go home.
"The change allows students to quarantine on their parents’ remote properties and return to school. Students will not be able to leave those properties. Students returning to Queensland will have to undertake a COVID-19 test," a Queensland Health spokeswoman said in a statement.
The students must re-enter Queensland by road, they will not have to quarantine upon re-entry if they stayed at their family's property, and the students and their guardians must travel directly from home back to their school.
Students travelling by air, from built-up areas and from anywhere in Victoria must go into quarantine upon arrival in Queensland, either at their school or in hotel quarantine with a guardian.
Queensland Health also expanded its list of venues where confirmed COVID-19 cases have visited, including two new locations. The full 46-venue list can be found here.
The new health alerts were issued for anyone who visited Coles supermarket in the Ipswich suburb of Karalee on Friday, September 4, between 9.30am and 10.15am. The second alert encompassed anyone at Ipswich Garden Centre in Raceview on Friday, September 4, from 12.30pm to 1.30pm.