50 locations over 38 hours: Inside Qld’s latest contact trace race

More than 2000 people have already been placed in quarantine after three Covid-infected people spent a combined 38 hours in the southeast Queensland community across almost 50 locations.

Queensland authorities are racing to identify hundreds of potential close contacts who crossed paths with an infected trio who spent a combined 38 hours in the community across nearly 50 locations.

A total of 2134 people were in home quarantine in Queensland as of Monday morning as a result of multiple outbreaks.

Police confirmed they had interviewed a Delta-infected man accused of fleeing Sydney’s lockdown and travelling in the community for seven days.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said police had also interviewed the infected flight attendant who allegedly picked up the man in Ballina and drove him into Queensland on July 14.

Mr Gollschewski said that the woman had not been forthcoming with information and had sought legal representation.

Westfield Chermside has been placed on the contact trace list. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Authorities allege the man ignored orders to quarantine at home after a colleague tested positive to the Delta variant and instead travelled to Queensland in breach of Sydney’s lockdown, before lying about his whereabouts when health staff contacted him with his positive test results.

Meanwhile, health officials have been left perplexed by the state’s latest positive case – a fully vaccinated returned traveller who became unwell a day after leaving hotel quarantine.

The man, in his 40s, lives on the Gold Coast and had recently returned from China.

Authorities were on Monday night waiting on genomic sequencing to determine if the man had contracted the virus overseas or if Queensland was facing another potential leak of Covid-19 from hotel quarantine.

As of 6pm on Monday, the two infected men and the infected woman had separately traversed almost a dozen suburbs across southeast Queensland, spending a total of 38.5 hours across 46 locations while infectious.

This includes the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Parkwood, multiple locations at the Westfield Chermside shopping centre, a sex shop, and a number of restaurants on the Gold Coast.

Goodstart Early Learning Parkwood was potentially exposed to the virus over a number of days.

The latest venue added as a casual contact exposure site was the Sandgate Bakehouse between 10am and 11am on both July 20 and 22.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young conceded she still had no idea where the returned traveller contracted the virus, not ruling out that he could have picked it up in the community.

“I’m not sure of the acquisition of this case, it could have been in China, it could have been in quarantine or it could have been in the community down in the Gold Coast,” she said.

“Please keep coming forward (for testing), any symptoms at all, anywhere in Queensland.

“So please, anyone who’s been in the Gold Coast or in Brisbane, since the 13th of July, please look at our website and check and see if you’ve been to any of those exposure sites.”

People being tested at the mobile Covid testing centre at Outback Spectacular Carpark at Oxenford. Picture: Glenn Hampson

The man, who had been fully vaccinated in China, left hotel quarantine on July 12 and returned to the Gold Coast.

He and his family started feeling unwell on July 13, but Dr Young said it could have been an illness “totally unrelated” to coronavirus.

“We are picking that 13th as the potential start, but in actual fact it could have been later, we are just being cautious,” she said.

“We immediately put him in isolation after his first test … it should be low risk, but look we don’t know, he is fully vaccinated and we still don’t understand how it works,” she said.

“There are so many unknowns here so we are taking a cautious approach of course as we usually do.”

Dr Young urged everyone over the age of 60 to get ­vaccinated.

“They are very effective against preventing severe disease and death,” she said.

“Each of us when we are able to should get ourselves vaccinated.”

Meanwhile, New South Wales recorded two more deaths from coronavirus on Monday – a man and woman in their 80s – on a day when the state recorded another 145 local infections.