Griffith University says employee has tested positive to Covid-19

Southeast Queensland is facing a potential new Covid outbreak, with multiple new cases confirmed after the diagnosis of a 13-year-old student at a school on Brisbane’s southside.

Southeast Queensland is in the grip of a new Covid outbreak, with multiple people now confirmed as infectious following the diagnosis of a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

As authorities scrambled to trace the source of the infection, St Thomas More College acting principal Karen Mulcahy last night alerted parents “multiple people” who attended the school had now tested positive.

“The Metro South Public Health Unit is currently working closely with the school to urgently assess the situation,” the letter to parents read.

The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) has stood up a COVID-19 testing clinic running 24hours from 8am today:
🚑 Community Health Centre, 51 McKechnie Drive, Eight Mile Plains.
If you have ANY symptoms of COVID-19, do not hesitate to come straight down for a quick and easy test. pic.twitter.com/Hq3st3r8w6

— Queensland Ambulance (@QldAmbulance) September 10, 2021

Anyone who attended the school this week has been told to immediately quarantine.

The alert came as Griffith University confirmed a positive Covid case in a staff member, believed to be linked to the school outbreak.

The university said the employee was a close family contact of the 13-year-old school student who tested positive on Friday morning.

The staff member visited the Nathan campus on Wednesday.

A spokesperson from Griffith University said the employee had attended a meeting on the Nathan campus on Wednesday this week.

Queensland Health notified all attendees who were at the meeting and asked them to go home and immediately get tested.

An internal memo advised staff that two buildings would be closed for deep cleaning.

The university also said they had advised staff members who visited the N72 Glyn Davis building as well as the N63 Business 3 building.

The new cases heighten fears of a new Covid outbreak in the southeast, with health authorities scrambling to pinpoint how the case in a 13-year-old student was contracted.

The original case, detected mid-morning on Friday, shut down the college at Sunny­bank, forcing all students, teachers and families into two weeks of quarantine.

The teenager was infectious in the community for three days and four exposure site locations, with various dates and times were released late on Friday, including the girl’s school, two shops and a train station.

Heavy traffic as parents scramble to pic up their children from St Thomas More College at Sunnybank. Picture; NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Queensland Health was still awaiting genomic sequencing results to determine which strain the girl has and where she contracted the virus.

Everton Park State High School in Brisbane’s north also issued a letter to parents and carers on Friday after a member of staff was identified as a secondary contact by Queensland Health

It comes as authorities await test results from hundreds of Queenslanders who visited the busy Westfield Garden City Shopping Centre at the same time as a Covid-infected NSW truck driver.

The driver, aged in his 20s, has had his first Covid vaccination jab and has already returned to NSW.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said that when she was notified about the 13-year-old girl, the principal of St Thomas More College was immediately asked to close the school.

But she said it was too early to say whether a lockdown would be considered as a result of this case.

Parents and staff at the gates of St Thomas More College at Sunnybank. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“As a very precautionary response … she was at school in the last few days, so we have spoken to the principal … and asked the principal to advise all children in that school to immediately be picked up and taken home and to go into quarantine for the next 14 days, unless we get other information that could change that advice,” she said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was encouraged that staff and students had been wearing masks.

“It’s very urgent for people to get vaccinated … it’s great to see we have got the opportunity for our students to be vaccinated and then of course we won’t have these issues that are arising, where we see a 13-year-old at this stage, which has tested positive,” she said.

“One thing that has given me some comfort is that the students are wearing masks.”

In relation to the truck driver, Dr Young said anyone who had been to the Westfield Garden City on Sunday, September 5, or Monday, September 6, should check the exposure sites and get tested.

“That’s really important, so we have already put multiple additional testing centres in place, so it’s really important that people go, because it’s now five days later and we know that the Delta variant, which I assume this is, but I don't have that result yet, I assume it’s that, transmits very quickly,” she said.

A number of exposure sites have been listed at Westfield Garden City Shopping Centre at Mt Gravatt. File picture

Dr Young said health authorities would be looking at how to better process truck and freight drivers, as the issue remained one of the greatest risks of the Delta variant crossing the border.

She said it would be difficult given the thousands of drivers who came across every day.

“There are a lot of truck drivers, thousands and thousands cross the border every day, and to hold them up would be difficult but we are looking at it,” she said.

The government is establishing more rapid testing clinics to help respond to potential outbreaks, including a QAS testing clinic at a community centre in Browns Plains, south of Brisbane.

While there is heightened concern surrounding the new cases, Queensland remains open with few restrictions, except for mask wearing mandates for southeast council areas.

Mask restrictions will remain in place until at least September 24, but Dr Young has insisted the mandate will continue while Delta remains a threat.

NSW recorded 1542 new cases on Friday, with a further nine deaths as the state’s toll climbs to 218.

In Victoria, there were 334 new cases, with 185 unlinked to known outbreaks, and one more death.

Despite several Delta breaches at the border recently, Ms Palaszczuk announced the reinstatement of a “border bubble” that would ease restrictions across state lines but only for those who had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Chief Medical Officer Jeanette Young speaks to the media in Brisbane on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

New mass vaccination hubs have opened across the state, including in Cairns and Mt Warren Park near Beenleigh, as the government seeks to target impacted regions where the rollout is lagging behind the state average.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said mass vaccination hubs and walk-in sites had been popular.

“It’s absolutely critical that if we are to keep these arrangements in place that we get as many people vaccinated across the border and right throughout the state and that’s exactly what these hubs are all about,” Mr Miles said.

Queensland Health administered 23,807 vaccinations in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday as the first dose eligible population increased to 54.84 per cent, and 36.45 per cent double dosed.

Ms Palaszczuk urged Queenslanders to get tested even if they had symptoms.

“Any symptoms at all … come forward and get tested and secondly, the thing we can do to protect ourselves the most is to get vaccinated,” she said.