Qld coronavirus: Two new cases, 7000 prisoners in lockdown

A training officer in the Queensland prisons system is one of two new cases of coronavirus recorded in the past 24 hours, prompting the lockdown of thousands of prisoners as far north as Rockhampton and putting authorities on alert for unrest.

There have been two new cases of coronavirus recorded in Queensland in the past 24 hours with dozens of close contacts in quarantine and more than 7000 prisoners in total lockdown.

Health authorities are now scrambling to trace the origin of the latest case - a 60-year-old Forest Lake man who worked as a trainer for Queensland’s prison system.

The second case is a Cairns resident who is in hotel quarantine after returning from overseas. They had recently returned from Papua New Guinea.

The prison officer tested positive yesterday, prompting the lockdown of two southeast Queensland jails and the forensic cleaning of another site. Widespread restrictions on prisoners will now continue across the state.

There have been two more cases of coronavirus in Queensland.

Authorities are preparing for unrest.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said the worker who had contracted the virus had not worked in prisons, but trained correctional officers.

However, prisons from Capricornia to those across the southeast have moved to stage 4 restrictions, with 7000 prisoners now effectively in lockdown.

It’s not known how long prisoners will be locked in their cells across those facilities.

Only officers and prisoners who have come into contact with anyone associated with the new positive case, or anyone who develops symptoms will be tested.

Temperature checking was already in place but masks would now be used by everyone.

Lawyer and personal visits will not be allowed and prisoners will be kept in cells so that transmission could not occur between prisoners and with guards.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said authorities working to find the link to the latest case. (News Corp/Attila Csaszar)

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said authorities were still examining any links between the new prison officer case and cases at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.

“We have had some other cases who live in Forest Lake ... I suspect it will be linked in some one to one of the other 11 cases that we have got,” she said.

Dr Young said contact tracers were working with the man and a public health alert would be issued if needed to alert people to where he had been while infectious.

Twenty-five close contacts of the prison trainer - 14 recruits and 11 colleagues - have been identified, tested and quarantined.

She said genome sequencing was happening for all current cases, but “the problem is, there’s lots of samples out there that are the same”.

“It won’t give us any more information than what we have,” she said.

Dr Young said it was likely that authorities would not find out the exact source of the latest youth detention centre cluster.

There was one new case on Wednesday, which took a cluster connected to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre to 11.

Investigations are continuing into how the initial case from the detention centre contracted the virus and Dr Young has warned that there was still a chance of community transmission.