Queensland records 16 new Delta cases as major Brisbane hospitals declared Covid exposure sites

Queensland Health has confirmed a person living in Far North Queensland has tested positive to Covid-19, and is either at the very beginning or end of his infection with a new list of exposure sites released.

A Covid case has been detected in Far North Queensland with authorities this afternoon saying the stage of his infection means it is not a historic case.

Queensland Health on Tuesday afternoon confirmed a fresh case of Covid-19 has been detected in a person living in the Cairns region.

This afternoon it was revealed the man, a reef pilot, had high CT values, meaning he is either at the very beginning or the end of his infection.

Health authorities do not yet know the strain of Covid-19 and are investigating how he caught it. The man is fully vaccinated.

The case will be revealed in Wednesday’s tally.

A number of Covid-19 exposure sites were identified late on Tuesday after the positive case was detected.

A Cairns childcare centre was added to the contact tracing list, with anyone who had been to Bluewater Village Early Learning in Trinity Beach on Friday, Monday and Tuesday instructed to isolate for 14 days.

Exposure sites were also listed at Hidden Cafe in Yorkeys Knob on Sunday and 1300SMILES Dental Practice on Friday.

Blue Marlin Bistro and Reef Fleet Terminal Pier were also added to the list for anyone who attended on Saturday.

Cairns Domestic Airport and Fitzroy Island were added to the low risk exposure sites list.

Cairns MP Michael Healy said the positive case had “done everything right”.

The man has been admitted to Cairns Hospital as authorities start contact tracing. File picture: Peter Carruthers

The man has been admitted to Cairns Hospital as a precaution.

“This person has done everything the right way,” Mr Healy said.

“The genomic sequencing is under way to determine the strain of virus and contact tracing is well under way.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk issued a statement late Tuesday on the Cairns case, saying testing would be ramped up and public health alerts would be issued.

“The circumstances of this case are currently being investigated and more information will be released at the daily media conference tomorrow,” she said.

“Tests are currently being performed to determine whether there is any infection risk to the community.”

She said a public health alert would be issued for contact tracing locations in Cairns, Trinity Beach and Yorkey’s Knob.

Earlier, infectious disease physician Paul Griffin said the emergence of a new case in Cairns was concerning, given the far north was not subject to a lockdown or mask mandates, except at airports.

Associate Professor Griffin said genomic sequencing would determine whether the case was linked to the Delta cluster of 47 people, many of them Brisbane school children, or whether it was a new outbreak.

“Certainly a sporadic case in a location that’s fairly distant to where the current cluster seems to be, and not near any known exposure sites, is something that needs to be investigated as a priority,” he said.

“It would be great to get the sequencing back and be able to piece together whether it is related or not.”

Prof Griffin said if more cases are identified in Cairns, harsher restrictions may have to be reassessed for the region, including a lockdown.

It comes as Queensland recorded 16 new locally acquired cases of the virus, taking the current Delta cluster which sent the state’s southeast into lockdown to 47 cases.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said it remained her aim to lift the lockdown on Sunday at 4pm.

Dr Young said for that to happen, she would want to see that any new cases have been in quarantine for their full infectious period

Of the new cases announced today, one is linked to Indooroopilly State High School, four to Brisbane Grammar, two to Brisbane Girls Grammar and three to Ironside State School.

Five are household contacts and one is the neighbour of a confirmed case.

A breakdown of the ages of the new cases show that five cases are in children under 10 (one girl and four boys), with a further six in the 10 to 19 years bracket (one girl, five males).

There were two women aged 30 to 39 and three people (two women and one man) aged 50 to 59.

Dr Young said while happy all cases were linked to the Delta cluster, she was concerned that health authorities still don’t know how the outbreak occurred.

“We do need to continue testing throughout all 11 LGAs and throughout Queensland so we can make sure we don’t have anymore transmission events or outbreaks happening,” she said.

“Please get tested if you have any symptoms at all … and please don’t move the virus.”

Dr Young said she hoped the virus would “burn out” by people staying at home.

“If you are thinking today … will I or won’t I go out, can I or can’t I, just stay home,” she said.

“If you don’t need to leave home, please don’t leave home.”

Dr Young said most of the new cases have been infectious in the community – some of them for up to six days.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young. Picture: Brad Fleet

Dr Young said she believed some non-essential retail stores were still opening and that she hoped they had heard the message about non-essential workers staying home and would act.

If you have to question whether you’re an essential worker then you’re probably not, Dr Young said.

“I want to thank how many Queenslanders have gone into quarantine from the start of this,” she said.

In terms of teachers being included as a priority group in the vaccine rollout Dr Young said there was not enough vaccines.

“As much as I would love to vaccinate teachers immediately I don’t have enough,” she said

Dr Young said she was feeling hopeful given the amount of testing that had been done and that the roads were empty as she travelled into the city this morning.

With 150,000 AstraZeneca doses on their way to Queensland, Dr Young said people under 60 should be consulting their doctor on whether it was safe for them to receive one.

“This is the time that people under the age of 60 should be talking to GPs about what is best for them,” Dr Young said.

While 34,718 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, it’s still lower than the 40,000 which health officials want to see.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said almost 8000 Queenslanders are in quarantine.

Mr Miles said anyone in home quarantine who needed assistance should ring the community hotline – 1800 173 349.

He said it was important the lockdown was complied with across all of the affected LGAs.

Mr Miles said the overwhelming feeling from all leaders was that we were all in this together.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Dan Peled

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said people shouldn’t be asking themselves whether they can go outside – but rather should they be going out.

“Go with your gut feeling,” she said.

A new testing site will be set up at Moggill District Sports Park while Indooroopilly State High testing site’s hours will be extended, but is for families of students only, Ms D’Ath said.

“I know we can do this and if we do it well and do it hard and do it quick maybe we can get through this week...but we need more people getting tested and we need more people staying at home,” she said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said police enforcement was on Monday at its highest level since the pandemic began.

Police arrested 21 people with 15 relating to the protest activity.

“We’re going to increase our presence in the community,” he said.

He said an RBT-style presence would start being rolled out on the roads to check whether people needed to be away from their homes.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital has been listed as a Covid exposure site. Picture: John Gass

It comes as two Brisbane hospitals are added to a growing list of Covid-19 hot spot locations and an under-8s soccer player has tested positive to Delta as the Sunshine State braces for an increase in infections.

Queensland’s latest case numbers will be revealed at 10am today on the third-day of an eight-day lockdown due to a growing cluster of Delta cases.

On Tuesday morning the Sunnybank Private Hospital and the Princess Alexandra Hospital were added as contact tracing locations.

This comes after it was revealed about 300 Queensland Health staff had been forced into home quarantine due to links with the growing number of exposure sites, including schools.

Meanwhile, an under-8s Brisbane soccer player potentially took to the field while infectious with the highly-contagious Delta strain during a game on Saturday, a club has warned.

Sunnybank Private Hospital has been listed as a Covid exposure site. Picture: Richard Walker

The Taringa Rovers have sent an urgent message to players, members and families after being alerted that one of their under-8s has tested positive to COVID-19 in the state’s latest outbreak.

“Although asymptomatic, the player was potentially infected … when they played in the u8 (Buzzers v Falcons) in-house game on Jack Speare Park Field 3,” the club said.

The player also watched the u6 game, between the Hounds and the Dalmatians at Jack Speare Field 1 on Saturday.

The club has been advised to urge anyone who attended the games, which were held at the club’s home ground of Jack Speare Park in Indooroopilly, to immediately get tested and isolate until returning a negative result.

Other close contacts will be contacted by Queensland Health.

“Taringa Rovers will undertake a deep clean of all the buildings and facilities which were open on Saturday,” the club said.

“Please stay safe and be kind to one another.”

An under 8s player from Taringa Rovers was infectious with Covid when they took the field for a junior soccer match at the weekend. Picture: Supplied

It comes as Metro South Health issues a warning that fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 have been found in testing at Oxley Creek.

The find has sparked authorities to emphasise the importance of anyone with symptoms to get tested.