Qld coronavirus: No new COVID-19 cases, but confusion over positive result

A southeast Queensland woman who was revealed on Wednesday to be Queensland’s latest case of COVID-19 has just returned a negative result, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed.

An Ipswich woman who was revealed as Queensland’s latest case of COVID-19 on Wednesday does not have the virus.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a serology test for the 68-year-old woman has returned a negative result on Thursday.

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She said the follow-up test was ordered after her first PCR test returned a positive result and her second test returned a negative result.

Authorities had initially worried over the case as it was not known where the woman may have picked up the virus.

It’s understood the woman’s result is but a handful of false positives the state has recorded.

A Queensland Health spokesperson said the woman had initially been referred to a private pathology for a test by her GP.

After being notified, Queensland Health performed the follow-up tests.

Queensland recorded no new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the premier confirmed in a tweet this morning.

It means the total number of confirmed cases remains stable at 1088, with only 12 of those cases active.

It comes as Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles this morning said the positive case reported yesterday of a 68-year-old woman in the Ipswich area, remained under investigation after ‘confusing’ test results.

Speaking on ABC radio this morning, Mr Miles said authorities were still investigating the case, as the woman had no “obvious link” to existing cases.

“We are doing additional testing today,” he said.

“She certainly tested positive on the first test, but additional testing since has come back with mixed results including negative results.

“We are working with serology and urgently awaiting those results.”

In the last 24 hours, 25, 411 tests have been conducted.

To date, 620,412 tests have been carried out.

Mr Miles said his concern was if it was a true positive, there was no indication where the woman had contracted the virus.

It comes eight days after it was revealed two women, who were infectious with the potentially deadly virus, were confirmed COVID-19 cases after allegedly lying their way into Queensland and spending days in the community.

Mr Miles said he was still holding his breath, but hoped all linked cases had been caught.

“We are starting to have more confidence that we’ve found all cases, but we won’t know for sure until we hit the 14 day mark,” he said.

“The weekend was tense, we thought there would be multiple outbreaks and we were concerned by the aged care facility … it was a relief when those 105 residents all tested negative.”