Covid Qld: Brisbane woman latest case after visiting NSW hot spot

A Brisbane woman is understood to have tested positive to Covid-19 after visiting a northern NSW hotspot.

A Brisbane woman is understood to have tested positive to Covid-19 after visiting a northern NSW hotspot.

The Camp Hill woman is believed to have visited Kyogle, which is in Queensland’s border bubble, and came into contact with someone who later tested positive.

A swath of new exposure sites were revealed late on Wednesday, including at shopping centres in Carindale and Cannon Hill this week.

Queensland Health has refused to confirm the new case, saying it was policy to reveal any new cases at the daily morning press conference.

A number of fresh exposure sites have also been listed at Portside Wharf in Hamilton from Tuesday last week to Monday.

A Melbourne-to-Brisbane flight on Monday was also added to the list, indicating there could be a further case.

A fresh batch of Gold Coast exposure sites were also listed.

The Brisbane woman is believed to have visited northern NSW Covid-19 hot spot Kyogle

According to NSW health authorities, there are two cases in the Kyogle area that have been picked up since Tuesday.

Earlier, Queensland Health came under fire for failing to update exposure sites on the Gold Coast for eight hours after it was revealed two people had been out and about on the Glitter Strip while infectious.

The Coast has emerged as a new Covid hotspot after a fully vaccinated Biggera Waters man tested positive to the virus and an interstate truckie, who lives at Gaven, visited a string of suburbs while infectious after testing positive in NSW.

But despite Coast locals and tourists being on tenterhooks, Queensland Health had still not provided the list of exposure sites more than eight hours after Health Minister Yvette D’Ath and Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young’s morning media conference.

A Coles supermarket, Subway store, Surfers Paradise sports club and two service stations were among seven new Gold Coast exposure sites finally updated by Queensland Health over eight hours after the Glitter Strip was identified as a new a Covid hotspot. More are expected to follow.

FULL LIST IN THE TABLE BELOW

The lengthy delay with locations sparked a social media backlash.

“The press conference was at 10am,” one person posted on Queensland Health’s Twitter feed.

“We are constantly being told to check the website for latest updates, yet the website hasn’t been updated since the 27th (of September). This needs to be a priority … get the exposure sites on the website the second you learn of them Queensland Health!”

Another Twitter user posted: “Well, why don’t you update exposure sites … last update (last night) what the heck??!!”

Queensland Health tweeted at 10.22am: “More info to come soon”.

About 3pm and again around 5pm, Queensland Health added a number of new exposure sites, including several at the Carindale Westfield shopping centre and the Cannon Central shopping centre in Cannon Hill.

However, Queensland Health only uploaded the exposure sites for the Gold Coast at 6pm and the list appears to be incomplete.

It is not known whether additional sites will be provided today.

Dr Jeannette Young said she couldn’t say she was ‘comfortable’ with the current outbreak. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

At a 10am press conference, it was confirmed that Queensland recorded one new locally acquired Covid-19 case – the man, aged in his 50s, who lives in Biggera Waters.

The fully-vaccinated man is a close contact of an aviation training worker who tested positive on Monday night and had been infectious while out on the Gold Coast.

But the second case not recorded in Wednesday’s numbers because it was detected in NSW, is also a cause of concern for Gold Coast locals and now means the state is battling three current outbreaks.

A truck driver, who lives at Gaven on the Gold Coast tested positive after travelling between Sydney and Queensland.

He was infectious in the Gold Coast community from September 25 to 27 and visited a large number of locations.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said a raft of exposure sites are set to be added after he visited multiple suburbs in the city including Mermaid Waters, Merrimac, Surfers Paradise, Currumbin, Nerang and Palm Beach.

“We do want people to make sure they are checking these websites,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said Gold Coast residents must now wear masks at all times while indoors, joining Brisbane and Moreton in the tougher mask restrictions.

She said “today is the day” people should get vaccinated, with a minimum of five weeks from the first dose to full protection.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said she couldn’t say she was “comfortable” with the current outbreak but at the moment she was prepared to wait and watch the situation closely because all cases are currently linked.

Asked if she thought there’d be a large outbreak in coming months, she said she expects Queensland to be in a situation where the virus was circulating in the community “earlier than the end of the year”.

“We are getting cases coming into Queensland every single day and that will continue to happen while there is a high number of cases just on the other side of the border,” she said.

Dr Young said she wasn’t concerned that the truck driver, who was travelling between Sydney and Gaven, had still caught Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated.

“We’ve always known that just because you’re vaccinated doesn’t mean you can’t pass it on,” she said.

“The point is that if you pass it on to someone who is vaccinated and they get it, their risk is quite low of having severe disease.

“That’s why getting vaccinated while other people in the community aren’t vaccinated is insufficient protection for the community.

“But once the community is vaccinated, we will get virus circulating and people will get sick, but the chances of them needing intensive care or dying from the disease are enormously low.”

Dr Young said it was “really really important” people continue to wear masks.

She also declared the vulnerable population was not yet protected enough, and declared restrictions on aged care, disability, health and corrective services facilities would be extended to the Gold Coast.

She acknowledged the “harsh” restrictions on truck drivers – including mandatory vaccination – but pleaded with them to follow the rules.

Dr Young said people with Covid who were fully vaccinated would be fine.

Adalong Guesthouse in South Brisbane where a truck driver stayed while infectious, sharing facilities with multiple other guests. Pics Tara Croser.

Ms D’Ath said health authorities are working closely with the aviation industry and airlines to trace contact close contacts of the aviation worker who tested positive on Monday night.

More than 300 people work at the training centre and could have been potentially exposed.

She said none of the close contacts of a second truck driver who stayed in multiple Brisbane accommodation facilities has tested positive.

All of the close contacts will now enter self-isolation for 14 days.

The Minister said testing capacity would be boosted on the Gold Coast.

“We know that the virus is on our doorstep,” she said.

The genomic sequencing shows the virus is not linked to any existing Queensland cases.

“We don’t have any evidence of the virus still circulating in the community from previous clusters,” Ms D’Ath said.

Dr Young said the cases from Tuesday were Delta, and linked to cases in New South Wales and the United States.

“We have these brand new outbreaks happening every day,” she said.

There are 18 active cases in the state of Queensland.

There were 11,208 tests on Tuesday.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said police were checking 100 per cent of people attempting to cross the border.

He said police were still seeing people “chancing it” in attempting to cross the border.

“Work with us at those points,” he said.

There were seven penalty infringement notices handed out overnight for people attempting to cross the border without adequate paperwork.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young on Tuesday said “large numbers” of cases in the coming days could trigger a lockdown – the first since July 31 when six community cases were deemed enough to warrant stay-at-home orders.

The fresh Covid scare was sparked late on Monday night when Queensland Health revealed a man who works for an aviation training site tested positive – despite not travelling interstate or overseas – and had been in the community, including at a childcare centre.

Hours later it emerged his wife had also tested positive, but authorities were more worried about an unrelated truck driver who stayed at three locations in Brisbane including the guesthouse where bathrooms are shared.

Dr Young said it was not known how the truckie or the aviation worker contracted the virus.

More than a dozen exposure sites were listed on Queensland Health’s website including the Adalong Student Guesthouse where the truckie stayed while infectious along with 25 other people, who were bussed out of the accommodation about 6pm yesterday.