Authorities on high alert amid concerns Qld’s latest Covid-19 virus case may have Delta variant

Urgent investigations are under way into whether a woman who tested positive to the Covid-19 virus just hours after leaving hotel quarantine in Brisbane became infected during the compulsory 14-day stay.

Urgent investigations are under way into how a woman tested positive to the Covid-19 virus just hours after finishing 14 days of hotel quarantine in Brisbane.

Genomic sequencing on Sunday night ruled out the international flight crew member had the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus as initially feared.

The woman, in her 30s, had arrived into Brisbane on an Emirates flight from Dubai on June 5, coming into contact with a passenger who had the Delta strain.

That triggered concerns she, too, had been infected with the feared Delta variant.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said further testing would be needed to identify the exact variant the woman had been infected with in a bid to shed light on how she had caught the virus.

The focus of the investigation is expected to centre on whether she was infected while in hotel quarantine.

“It’s good news the case isn’t the highly transmissible Delta variant, but we do still need to take every precaution,” Dr Young said.

The woman spent four hours out and about in Brisbane on Saturday while unknowingly infectious before learning she had the virus.

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People who attended the Brisbane Airport DFO between 4-4.30pm on Saturday have been told to immediately self-isolate after a flight crew member tested positive to the Covid-19 virus. Photo: David Clark.

She had tested negative three times in hotel quarantine, including on day 12, before her positive test on Saturday as part of routine seven-day testing of flight crew.

Dr Young said the woman left quarantine at 9am on Saturday and was driven with other flight crew members to apartments at Hamilton, in Brisbane’s inner-north, where she remained for most of the day.

But she spent between 4-4.30pm at Brisbane Airport’s DFO, then wandered the Brisbane CBD from 5-6pm before heading to the Portuguese Family Centre restaurant at Ellen Grove, on Brisbane’s southwestern outskirts, for dinner.

She was there between 7-7.50pm when she was notified of her positive test and went straight to hospital.

Contact tracers will trawl through CCTV from the DFO and potential CBD exposure sites to identify people she may have come into contact with.

Dr Young called on people who visited the airport DFO at the same time as the woman to immediately isolate at home and contact 13 HEALTH or fill out a contact tracing form on the Queensland Health website.

The Portuguese Family Centre restaurant in Ellen Grove, on Brisbane’s southwestern outskirts. Photo: Lyndon Mechielsen.

“Queensland Health will contact individuals with advice about getting tested, however it is likely now that individuals will not need to quarantine for the full 14 days,” she said.

Dr Young said people who were in the Brisbane CBD at the same time as the woman on Saturday evening should get tested and self-isolate only if they developed symptoms.

She said the woman could not recall entering any CBD businesses, suggesting the risk was lower because any potential contact would have been outdoors.

Infectious disease physician Paul Griffin used the case to urge Queenslanders to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible.

“The more people vaccinated the lower the impact of these sort of cases,” he said.