‘One per cent chance’: Newest Qld Covid-19 case a rarity

The returning Australian citizen who tested positive for Covid-19 after falling ill in a Brisbane backpackers caught the virus about 24 days earlier and then delivered three negative tests in hotel quarantine, alarming new details show.

Queensland has recorded no new local cases of Covid-19 on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Queensland health authorities breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after no new cases of Covid-19 were detected in the community, one day after a virus scare.

An Australian citizen, who quarantined in Brisbane after returning from the Philippines, tested positive to the Alpha strain on Wednesday after being infectious in the community for a week.

Genomic sequencing has identified the man is a direct match with three other travellers, unknown to him, who he was on two flights with - Manila to Port Moresby and from Port Moresby to Brisbane.

He acquired the virus while on the flight on July 2 or 3, but tested negative three times while in 14-day hotel quarantine at Quest Apartments.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the other three travellers were sent to different hotel quarantines.

After completing his quarantine, he then flew to Western Australia on July 17 or 18 but was denied entry.

WA authorities put him in quarantine before he was put on a flight back to Brisbane, which at 12.55pm on July 20.

he then became unwell while staying in the City Backpackers HQ at Roma Street.

A man who was staying at the City Backpackers on Roma St tested positive to Covid-19 on Wednesday, almost four weeks after he acquired the virus. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“This confirms for us that this gentleman has contracted it from one of the other travellers while in transit on the plane or through the airports,” she said.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the man had experienced an unusually long incubation period, common in only one per cent of cases. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said he had “clearly acquired it” in transit to Queensland.

“We realise that is a longer incubation period than we would normally expect, but we know around one per cent of people can have an incubation period longer than 14 days, as has happened with this gentleman,” Dr Young said.

After leaving, he flew to Western Australia, but stayed in hotel quarantine there for two days before he returned to Queensland. Authorities believe he was infectious while on this flight and are now contact tracing passengers.

More than 25,000 tests were carried out in Queensland on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Upon his return to Brisbane, he booked into a hostel on Roma Street, where he stayed while unwell.

The risk of the latest case has prompted health authorities to extend southeast Queensland’s mask mandate which was due to lift on Friday morning.

“We know that people were hoping that the masks will lift, but I think we are up to 13 incursions of the virus through different outbreaks in Queensland over the last six weeks,” Ms D’Ath said.

“We have been able to contain all of these outbreaks to very small numbers. That is in some small part to the restrictions we have had in place... It is important that we continue to practice mask wearing to ensure that we don’t have transmission through our community.”

Originally published as ‘One per cent chance’: Newest Qld Covid-19 case a rarity