Qld coronavirus: 10 new cases confirmed amid Brisbane lockdown

Two clusters of the highly-contagious UK-strain of COVID-19 have exploded in Queensland with 10 new cases overnight including five linked to a hen’s party. Here’s the two clusters explained.

Queensland has recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, as two distinct clusters of the highly-contagious UK-variant emerge on the first day of the Greater Brisbane lockdown.

Eight of the 10 cases are as a result of community transmission while two were acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

The state now has 78 active cases of the virus, up from five on February 20 - a situation which Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young described as a ‘rapid ramp up of cases’.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who had earlier warned more cases were likely today, said it was good news that locally-acquired cases were linked.

Six are linked to existing clusters while two of the 10 cases remain under investigation but are expected to be linked to one of two clusters.

The two distinct clusters are 1. A PA Hospital doctor and 2. A PA hospital nurse.

1. PA HOSPITAL DOCTOR:

An unvaccinated Princess Alexandra Hospital doctor - along with two others - tested positive to COVID-19 in early March.

The doctor was infected by a hotel quarantine guest who had the UK-strain of COVID-19. That person is also believed to have infected another hotel quarantine guest, even though their rooms weren’t adjoining.

A subsequent case popped up last Friday in a 26-year-old Stafford man whose genomic sequencing linked him to the doctor’s virus.

A close contact of the Stafford man - a Strathpine man - then tested positive - along two of the Strathpine man’s colleagues and his brother.

This cluster stands at eight with two more cases under investigation which Dr Young believes are older cases.

Two distinct clusters have emerged.

Two close contacts were no longer infectious but tested for the virus on serology testing, which means they likely contracted the virus but have since recovered.

“We believe they’re older cases linked to the first cluster,” Dr Young said.

“I have initially got three cases related to the PA doctor back earlier in March.

“Then I’ve got an additional five cases that are confirmed that are related to that cluster.”

“Then I have got two more cases that I’m investigating that I suspect are related to that cluster, that’s one cluster.”

2. PA HOSPITAL NURSE:

An unvaccinated Princess Alexandra Hospital nurse is believed to have contracted COVID-19 while working a shift on March 23.

Her virus genomic sequencing links to the same virus of a traveller who tested positive after returning from India. He was being treated at the hospital.

She is then understood to have infected her sister along with several others after spending a weekend in a holiday house during a hen’s party at Byron Bay.

The cluster stands at eight with another one case under investigation.

One of the confirmed cases was reported as testing positive in Hervey Bay, but Queensland Health late Tuesday corrected that location to Bundaberg.

Another of those cases is a tradie who was working as an ‘entertainer’ at the hen’s party.

“My second cluster, I’ve got seven confirmed cases related to that cluster,” Dr Young said.

“Plus, of course, the original case who travelled from India that has led to that cluster.”

“Then I’ve got another case that’s one or the other cluster.”

Dr Young said she believed the nurse, who was due to be vaccinated this week, had acquired the infection while working at the hospital.

The nurse’s sister has also been infected with the virus.

Five new cases announced today have all been linked to the nurse.

“There are a further five cases ... linked to that nurse or her sister,” Dr Young said.

“They all attended a party together down in Byron Bay.”

HOW LONG WILL THE LOCKDOWN CONTINUE?

On the possibility of Greater Brisbane's lockdown continuing beyond Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk said it was a “day by day” proposition.

“So far the fact that we have these cases that are linked is good news. Do we expect to see more cases? Probably.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is seen at a press conference putting on a mask today. Photo: Dan Peled

She said the main concern over the next few days if there is any unlinked community transmission cases.

Ms Palaszczuk said the next two days was critical in terms of contact tracing.

It comes as authorities look at locations in Toowoomba, Hervey Bay, the Gold Coast and Gladstone for potential cases.

“Everyone is worried,” she said.

Dr Young said all cases were linked at the moment but “we’ve had a lot of people now out in the community infectious.”

“We’ll just have to see how many cases we have and whether or not they’re linked and whether or not they’re in quarantine at the time that they’re diagnosed,” she said.

“I don’t think it matters whether you’re in Gladstone or Toowoomba or Gold Coast - it’s anywhere in Queensland, because people have been very, very mobile since March 20.”

FRONTLINE WORKERS MUST GET VACCINE BEFORE WORKING:

Ms Palaszczuk revealed a new mandate for the vaccination of frontline health workers.

Under the new rules, any health worker who has not completed their vaccine schedule will not be allowed to work with COVID patients.

“There will be some new mandates coming into effect in terms of health professionals dealing with these COVID-positive cases,” the Premier said this morning.

“Already 41,000 of our frontline health workers and people looking after hotel quarantine have been vaccinated, which is around 89 per cent.

“And we expect that to be completed over the next 48 hours.”

Dr Young said as of tomorrow that only people who had had their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine could work directly with patients who have the virus.

Asked why the new mandate for health workers hadn’t been in place since the start of the jab rollout, Dr Young said there weren’t enough vaccinations.

“We had to roll the vaccine out,” she said.

“It’s just so unfortunate that this outbreak has occurred when it did.”

From tomorrow, only people who have had their first dose of the vaccine - whether that be Pfizer of AstraZeneca - can work directly with confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“That was always our plan,” she said.

“We did set ourselves that target for between four and six weeks to get all of 1A workers vaccinated.

“We’ve reached that, we believe we’ll finish that by tomorrow.

“And then the plan was always, once we had people vaccinated, because we needed to have people available to look after all of these cases, and as you heard earlier we’ve gone very, very rapidly from five cases in just over a month to 78 so we needed staff to look after these cases.”

Dr Young said the three day lockdown was necessary for health officials to get on top of contact tracing.

“Anyone, anywhere in Queensland ... with any symptoms please come forward, that is critical,” she said.

“We don’t have community transmission out there that we’re not aware of,” Dr Young said.

“But we’ve had a lot of people now out in the community while infectious.

“It is vital anyone in Queensland with any symptoms please come forward.”

Ms Palaszczuk confirmed that a tradie who had tested positive to the virus had visited a Gold Coast nursing home.

All residents have been vaccinated.

In a letter to “families and representatives” on Monday night, the manager of Tricare Mermaid Beach said the facility had “received news that a contractor involved with the refurbishments who was onsite today has returned a positive test for COVID-19.”

Dr Young said there had been a ‘rapid ramp up’ of COVID cases in Queensland which skyrocketed from just 5 active cases on February 20 to now stand at 78 - 65 of which were acquired overseas.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said Queensland performed 6004 vaccinations yesterday, the highest number since the vaccine program began in February 22.

Ms D’Ath said the number of vaccinations were increasing each day.

“We are at that critical mass point where we now can say to all of our hospital and health services, as of tomorrow, that we want you to confine the health workers who work with COVID-positive patients to those who have had their first vaccine,” she said.

“The reality is that we have a large number of positive cases in our hospitals now.”

“You put in place a protocol that says - we are only going to use vaccinated staff and reduce the number of staffing we can use that puts us all at risk.”

“The fact is that we are not fully vaccinated.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the Queensland community had stepped up this lockdown, with no reports of parties.

“We’ve seen one arrest related to COVID but that person was intercepted for serious criminal offences and during the arrest, decided to cough on police and has been charged with a serious assault as a result of that,” he said.

He said the Greater Brisbane community was not allowed to travel throughout the lockdown period before Easter.

“Of course a lot of people leave before the Easter weekend, they can’t do that.”