Three cases of coronavirus in Qld - two locally acquired

Queensland has three new cases of coronavirus, two of them as a result of community transfer. It comes as authorities praise Sunshine Coast hospital staff for their lifesaving treatment of a Covid-19 positive patient suffering a severe allergic reaction.

Queensland has three new cases of coronavirus, two of them acquired as a result of community transfer.

The other was acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

The two local cases were connected to cases in the Carindale outbreak.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the new cases went into home quarantine on July 2.

“They’ve now tested positive so we’ve just gone and done some further work and they’ve had no public exposure sites,” she said.

“There’s no risk there at all.”

Health authorities are continuing to monitor 9827 contacts related to a series of recent outbreaks in Queenlsand.

The state now has 49 active cases.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced three new cases of coronavirus in Queensland - two in home quarantine, one in hotel quarantine. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk gave a shoutout to 10 staff at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital who put their own lives at risk to save the life of a COVID-19 patient who went into anaphylactic shock.

“Congratulations to each and everyone of them,” she said.

“There was no hesitation. They just went in and helped out.”

Dr Young clarified that the workers were wearing personal protective equipment, but they felt their PPE may have been compromised by their rush to help the patient, who had suffered a severe allergic reaction.

All of the team were vaccinated, with one person awaiting their second jab.

She said the patient they treated had the Delta variant of Covid-19.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the State Government’s check-in app becomes mandatory on Friday, with more than 72,000 businesses now registered.

“We will have compliance officers going out and checking it,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said Queensland Health was seeing an increase in health workers voluntarily coming forward to get their COVID-19 vaccinations.

Authorities addressed the case of a man who says his mother died while he was waiting for permission to enter Queensland to see her.

Anthony McCormick, who is from Cairns but lives in Canada, says he was denied entry into Queensland to see his dying mother.

“I didn’t receive a single phone call from Queensland Health,” he said.

Dr Young said Queensland Health had been working with NSW authorities to assist Mr McCormick. and that she had not received a Covid test result.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young addresses the media in Brisbane on Thursday. Picture: Picture: John Gass

She described it as a “very, very tragic” situation and said the Government had increased the exemptions unit and were trying to process exemptions as quickly as possible.

“We are in a global pandemic,” she said.

“Our hearts go out to him. To lose someone so close is awful. We all lose relatives. It’s not nice. It’s awful.”

Ms Palaszczuk said people in the exemptions unit “were human”.

“They’re trying to process them and keep Queenslanders safe. Unfortunately in this case, it just didn’t occur in time,” she said.

“I honestly believe the people in the exemptions unit were trying their very, very best. My understanding is it’s in the hands of NSW at the moment. It was at the NSW stage. I’m not apportioning blame here. It is a tragic situation. It would have been so nice if it didn’t happen.

“We are 18 months into a world pandemic and now we have these more contagious strains of Delta. My understanding is they were progressing a test. We have to test.”

Queensland on Wednesday recorded one case of coronavirus, locally acquired and detected in home quarantine.

It came in a close contact of two cases in Tarragindi, on Brisbane’s southside.

Health authorities revealed a huge number of people in home and hotel quarantine as a result of Queensland’s six separate Covid-19 outbreaks.