Covid Qld: Get tested! Leaders’ urgent plea to get on top of outbreak
Queenslanders have been urged to get tested even if they have the mildest of Covid-19 symptoms as authorities try to establish just how the latest cluster began.
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Queenslanders have been urged to get tested even if they have the mildest of Covid-19 symptoms as authorities try to establish links between two infected returned Australians and a 17-year-old Indooroopilly State High School student and her tutor.
Queensland recorded nine new cases of community transmission on Sunday, but Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said there were likely more cases in the community that remained undetected, hence the call to get tested.
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The number of Queenslanders getting tested for Covid-19 in the state’s latest lockdown is far lower than in previous outbreaks.
A total of 11,468 Covid-19 tests were done on Saturday, when the lockdown was announced, a number Deputy Premier Steven Miles said simply wasn’t enough.
Data crunched by the Courier-Mail revealed Saturday’s testing volume was thousands less than previous lockdowns.
When the third lockdown was announced on June 29, 18,447 people went out to get tested that day, while 14,589 were swabbed when the second lockdown was announced on March 29.
During Queensland’s first snap lockdown of 2021, announced on January 8, 14,784 people were tested that day.
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Mr Miles said it was vital more Queenslanders came forward to get tested.
“That is not enough tests,” he said.
“It’s particularly important on the Sunshine Coast, where the Chief Health Officer is concerned there may be missing links to clusters.”
Dr Young signalled that one of the two returned men were treated at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and discharged on July 17.
She said she suspected the outbreak was connected to the Sunshine Coast.
“We’ve picked up the escalation point but I still think there are more cases on the Sunshine Coast that we do not know about,” she said.
“This is why I’m asking that anyone in the Sunshine Coast, who is unwell with any symptoms at all to immediately come forward.”
It’s vital anyone with any symptoms at all please come forward for testing…I don’t know where this virus is,” she said.
“We all need to work together for the next three days if we are to be able to lift this stay at home requirement.”
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath encouraged people in the southeast to get onto the Queensland Health website and check where they can get tested.
She said it was vital we increased testing numbers to beat the spread of the virus.
She said wait times were likely but anyone with any symptoms what do ever must be tested.
Ms D’Ath said Queensland Health would monitor testing sites today and if necessary, would stand up more clinics.
“If you have any symptoms whatsoever, you must come forward and you must get tested,” she said.
As locals heeded the plea and went out to get tested, they were met with long queues and wait times.
One Courier-Mail reader said she waited 90 minutes to get “halfway” along the line at a testing clinic in Mitchelton on Sunday.
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