Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reveals seven new cases - four locally acquired

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has revealed Queensland has recorded seven new Covid cases overnight but says the four locally acquired is ‘good news’ because they are all linked.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has revealed Queensland has recorded seven new Covid cases overnight - four locally acquired while three were detected in hotel quarantine and overseas acquired.

Despite the large number of cases, Ms Palaszczuk said they were all linked and it was ‘good news’.

The first is a case reported late yesterday - a woman who is a close contact to the Greek Orthodox Community Centre outbreak.

The second case is her child.

While the third and fourth cases were the partner and colleague of a man who travelled to Eumundi.

They all have the Alpha strain.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the four new local cases are all linked. Photo: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

Three cases attended the Zeus Street Greek Kitchen at Westfield Chermside.

Ms Palaszczuk said the linked cases were good news and said contact tracers believed they had worked out how the Portuguese restaurant cluster of the virus’ Alpha variant were all linked together.

Chief Health officer Dr Jeannette Young said contact tracers had been able to solve the mystery of how the most recent Prince Charles Hospital worker contracted Covid - she had attended the Portuguese restaurant.

“At this stage we now have 23 cases related to the Portuguese restaurant and the Greek Community Centre,” Dr Young said.

“That means this cluster of the Alpha variant is all coming together.”

More cases are expected, with Dr Young saying if you can’t see a QR code to check in at a venue, then ask.

Authorities do not believe the Delta variant is circulating in the community, and that it had now been two weeks since the Portuguese restaurant cluster began, which now stands at 23 cases.

A 69-year-old man linked to the Portuguese restaurant Alpha cluster is in hospital on a ventilator.

Dr Young said she was feeling more confident the Delta variant clusters Queensland had been dealing with were being managed well.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she is comfortable the outbreaks have been managed. Photo: Lyndon Mechielsen.

“We’re not totally out of the woods yet, but I’m fairly comfortable,” she said.

The Premier urged everyone to continue wearing masks until July 16.

“Those super sharp lockdowns do work,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Fingers crossed we continue going quite well.”

More than 92,000 vaccines have been administered over the past week.

“We have 139,875 Queenslanders who’ve now registered to get the Pfizer vaccine,” said Ms Palaszczuk.

“Our aim is to get everyone vaccinated as safely and as quickly as possible but of course that depends on supply.”

But she said bookings may not be until October when larger supplies are expected.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said almost 230,000 people were already booked in to have a Covid vaccination through a state-run community hub.

“Right now our vaccine administration is going up ... but our supply is stagnant,” she said.

“We do need to make sure we are prioritising everyone who has got a booking, all of our frontline staff and everyone who is due to a second dose.”

More than 615,000 vaccination doses have been administered through state runs clinics in Queensland.

She reminded businesses they must register for the Queensland check-in app, which would become mandatory on July 9.

She said she was noticing people wearing masks with it dangling under their chins.

“Please make sure you’re wearing your mask properly,” Ms D’Ath said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said 235 masks were handed out yesterday after the lockdown lifted.

Three of those people refused to wear the masks and were fined.

He said Queensland had 3,122 people in hotel quarantine at the moment

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said consultants Aecom had been engaged to work on the Pinkenba quarantine centre proposal.

He said he still wanted to see work progressed on the Toowoomba Wellcamp quarantine proposal, despite the state government backing the Brisbane site.

Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland would not need to use hotels for quarantine if facilities were built at Pinkenba and at Wellcamp, near Toowoomba.

It comes as two locally acquired cases were announced on Sunday, both linked to Brisbane’s Portuguese restaurant cluster.

One of the cases is a woman who went into quarantine on July 2 and is a close contact of the Covid-19 positive Carindale mum and daughter identified last week.

A man, whose case was under investigation, was added late Sunday to the restaurant cluster.

Queensland Health has expanded the list of exposure sites to include locations visited by the latest cases.

The Portuguese Family Centre cluster began more than a fortnight ago after a female flight attendant caught the Alpha variant while in hotel quarantine and spread it to the restaurant.

Ms Palaszczuk warned the state had a long way to go before lockdowns can be ruled out, with strict restrictions currently in place for much of southeast Queensland and Townsville.