Race to trace: Public exposed to mutant UK strain for 5 days, ‘vulnerable’ centres closed

Health authorities are in a race to trace close contacts of a Brisbane cleaner who was in the community for five days while infected.

Visitor bans will be imposed on hospitals, aged care facilities and disability accommodation centres after a Brisbane woman tested positive to the highly contagious UK coronavirus strain..

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young confirmed she would be taking “firm action swiftly” in a bid to protect “vulnerable” facilities.

It came after health officials revealed that a cleaner who worked in hotel quarantine, and has been praised by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for doing everything right, tested positive to the virus.

She was in the community for five days while infectious before she was diagnosed.

“We’re taking a very cautious approach with this case, now that we know for sure this person has the UK variant of the virus,” Dr Young said.

“Evidence shows that this variant is 70 per cent more infectious than other strains.”

A cleaner at a Brisbane quarantine hotel has tested positive to the UK strain of COVID-19.

Dr Young said visitor restrictions would be imposed on aged care facilities, hospitals, disability services and corrections facilities in the Metro North, Metro South and West Moreton Hospital and Health Services.

“And as always, anyone with any symptoms should come forward for testing immediately and isolate until they receive the results – especially anyone in Brisbane,” she said.

“The Eight Mile Plains Community Health Centre testing clinic will remain open right through the night, so please consider that location for testing tonight.”

The woman, who lives in Algester, on Brisbane’s southside, did a shift on Saturday at the inner-city Hotel Grand Chancellor, where four recent coronavirus cases have been detected in quarantine, including one with the mutant UK variant.

Health alerts have been issued for Algester and the nearby suburbs of Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills and Calamvale as authorities scramble to track down close contacts.

Police and members of the public at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane on Thursday. Picture: David Clark

Queensland Health is working with TransLink to access Go Card data and CCTV footage from Brisbane’s Altandi and Roma Street train stations on Saturday, visited by the cleaner to travel to work.

The woman’s case has triggered a new shift-by-shift saliva testing regime for hotel quarantine workers in Queensland, which will kick off on Monday, replacing the existing weekly testing process.

GET TESTED: WHERE INFECTED WORKER VISITED

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has praised the woman for doing “everything right”, after she tested positive on Wednesday night following an earlier negative result on December 29.

Her Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said it was “critical” for anyone in Queensland, but particularly those living in Brisbane, to get tested for the virus if they developed any symptoms at all.

The Hotel Grand Chancellor at Spring Hill. Picture: David Clark

“We know that this is a very infectious virus and we know it can escape,” Dr Young said. “It’s done that in multiple other sites around the country.

Queensland Health has established more fever clinics on Brisbane’s southside and private pathology providers QML and SNP have also increased their testing centre hours to cater for the expected increase in demand.

The cleaner is believed to have been infectious for five days before testing positive on Wednesday after developing symptoms.

Two people in quarantine at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane. Picture: David Clark

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said there would be a review of the state’s hotel quarantine processes to see if there was any more that could be done to improve them.

“When you get one of these cases ... we will immediately review all of the practices, the movements of this individual, any contact this individual had with any of the positive cases or of any of the rooms in which the positive cases were moved out into hospital,” she said.

With National Cabinet due to meet on Friday to discuss the UK variant, Ms D’Ath foreshadowed a discussion of whether international travellers should be tested for the virus before boarding their flights for Australia and whether masks should be mandatory on domestic routes.

“We do need to look at particularly people arriving from overseas from those international flights what else we can be doing to stop the infection coming to our shores,” Ms D’Ath said.

The woman’s case came as Ms D’Ath said Queensland border restrictions to Greater Sydney would be extended until at least the end of the month.

Dr Young maintained there would still need to be 28 days of no unlinked community transmission in Greater Sydney before the border reopened to the NSW capital.

Ms Palaszczuk urged Queenslanders to reconsider travel to regional NSW and Victoria in light of ongoing outbreaks in the southern states.

“I know this is very disappointing for people during this time, but we are concerned still about Greater Sydney,” she said about the ongoing border closure.

“We have a watching brief as well on Victoria.

“Now is a good time to stay at home.”

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young has urged anyone with symptoms to get tested. Photo: Tara Croser.

Ms Palaszczuk said there had already been a National Cabinet review of hotel quarantine to ensure there were “strict measures” in place.

“As I’ve always said, you need to continue to have those strict measures in place and as Dr Young has said, this woman (the cleaner) has done everything correctly,” she said.

The Premier insisted Queensland was coping with hotel quarantine arrivals, saying the state had not succumbed to pressure to increase the number of international arrivals into the Sunshine State.

More than 1000 international travellers are being accepted into Queensland weekly.

The cleaner’s case is the first associated with a hotel quarantine worker in Queensland despite the state processing almost 60,000 people in hotel quarantine during the pandemic.

Dr Young said contact tracers were “double checking” whether she worked more than one job.

“Hotel staff or contractors may have multiple jobs or work across multiple sites with the same employer – that is often the nature of the industry,” a Queensland Health spokesperson said.

“Hotel staff or contractors are not employed or engaged by Queensland Health, but by individual businesses.”

Queensland recorded two new cases of the pandemic virus on Thursday, including a girl, aged under 10, who tested positive in hotel quarantine after returning from the UK.

For information about testing centres: health.qld.gov.au

A family in quarantine at the Hotel Grand Chancellor. Picture: David Clark

LIST OF SITES INFECTED WORKER VISITED:

– Saturday January 2: Train from Altandi to Roma Street at 7am

– Saturday January 2: Train from Central station to Altandi station at 4pm

– Sunday January 3: Woolworths Calamvale North from 11am to noon

– Tuesday January 5: Coles Sunnybank Hills from 7.30am to 8am

– Tuesday January 5: Nextra newsagent at Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown from 8am to 8.15am.