No new local Covid cases as Qld schools open for jabs

A man sent back to NSW after joining the search for a missing Queenslander has tested positive to Covid-19, prompting authorities to scramble to determine how long he’s been contagious. It comes as schools across the state join the urgent vaccine push.

Contact tracing is under way to determine whether a New South Wales man was infected with Covid-19 while searching for another missing man in Queensland’s outback.

The Covid-positive NSW man was camping with Jeremiah Rivers before he went missing in South West Queensland.

After joining the search for Mr Rivers the man was ordered to return to New South Wales, where he later tested positive for Covid-19.

New South Wales authorities are scrambling to identify whether the man acquired the virus after entering the state or if he was infectious while in Queensland’s outback community.

A health spokeswoman said contact tracing was a matter for NSW, but said any Queensland exposure sites would be announced if required.

Mr Rivers disappeared on his journey back to Darwin from a football trip.

The 27-year-old man was last seen near Wilsons River at 9.30am on October 18, about 20km south of Noccundra.

A massive search is underway across south-west Queensland to try to find missing man Jeremiah Rivers.

He was camping and fishing in the area with friends, who reported him missing when he failed to return from a walk.

Meanwhile, the state’s deputy chief health officer has hit out at Queensland’s “complacency” when it comes to getting the Covid jab, warning there will be only three ways to stop the virus once the borders open.

Speaking from Cavendish State High School alongside Education Minister Grace Grace, Dr James Smith’s comments came as the state recorded no new local cases overnight.

Dr Smith said there were now 26 active cases of Covid-19 in Queensland and he warned that “Covid will come into the community.”

Deputy Chief Health Officer James Smith. Picture: Liam Kidston

Dr Smith said there was only three ways to combat Covid once borders open: contact tracing, restrictions and vaccination.

He said there remained a lack of urgency across the state.

“I guess there’s a sense of apprehension or complacency - that Covid isn’t the immediate risk that it is,” he said.

Ms Grace said 74.1 per cent of the eligible population in Queensland had now had one dose of Covid vaccine, while 59.3 per cent of people were fully vaccinated.

She said today was “super Saturday” with more than 100 schools joining mass-vaccination hubs, GPS and pharmacies where the jab was available.

“If you haven’t been vaccinated please come out,” she said.

“Don’t do it for yourself… do it for your family, do it for your elderly grandparents.”

Education Minister Grace Grace. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

The Education Minister said Queensland was the first state in the country to put all school staff in the 1b, meaning that 70,000 staff had already been vaccinated.

She said it was “great news” for the state, but said it was urgent for high school students come out and get vaccinated too.

A total of 18,860 vaccinations had been done in the past 24 hours but Ms Grace said more people needed to come forward, particularly those aged between 19 and 39, who were being vaccinated in “slightly below average” numbers.

She said Queensland had been lucky to have freedoms that other states have not up until this point.

“It is because we have done the right thing,” she said.

“Covid will be the virus of the unvaccinated.”

Dr Smith provided an update on the health of an unvaccinated Uber driver from the Gold Coast who caught Covid while interstate, saying he was currently in a “very serious” condition in hospital.

Dr Smith said that Queensland Health was liaising with the Uber driver but had no more information.

“There have been challenges obtaining information from him, let’s just leave it at that,” he said.