Queensland Corrective Services officer tests positive to COVID-19

A prison officer has tested positive to coronavirus, sending two southeast Queensland jails into stage 4 lockdown and closing another site for forensic cleaning.

A prison officer has tested positive for COVID-19, sending all Queensland correctional facilities into lockdown just hours after the state’s Chief Health Officer warned Queenslanders to brace for further community transmission from the latest outbreak.

The correctional officer returned a positive test yesterday after last reporting for duty at the Queensland Corrective Services Academy last Friday.

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Queensland Health would last night not confirm if it was in addition to the one positive case the state recorded earlier yesterday, which took the latest cluster to 11 people.

Late yesterday, Commissioner Peter Martin wrote to correctional staff to inform them an officer, who trained workers deployed to “a range of locations”, had tested positive.

“They may have been contagious while in the workplace last week,” he wrote.

“As you are aware, we have a COVIDSafe plan in place for the academy, including the requirement for social distancing, however as a precaution, we are closing the academy effective immediately until we can undertake a forensic clean.

“Officers should not attend the academy until further notice.”

Mr Martin said QCS was working with Queensland Health to “better understand the implications of this positive case, including identifying any close contacts and possible exposure”.

“As a precaution, we have immediately moved Borallon Training and Correctional Centre, Woodford Correctional Centre, and Escort and Security Branch to stage 4 lockdown until this work is complete, as a group of trainees under the officer’s supervision were deployed to a range of locations in recent days,” he wrote.

A QCS spokesman said the officer returned the positive test on Wednesday and all the state’s correctional facilities had since been locked down.

“All correctional facilities in Queensland will remain on full lockdown until tomorrow morning to allow for briefings and further advice from Queensland Health,” the spokesman said last night.

Queensland Health last night issued a string of new public health alerts, including for Forest Lake Tavern and the Richlands Magistrates Court, in relation to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre outbreak.

Earlier yesterday, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young had announced Queensland recorded its largest day of coronavirus testing since the pandemic began with 20,856 tests in 24 hours, taking the total number in the past seven months to more than 818,000.

One new case was reported for Queensland yesterday morning, a person who lives in Forest Lakes and was identified as a close contact of an already confirmed case.

As the list of public health alerts related to the detention centre cluster ballooned again to include places such as the Graceville Netball courts and canteen, Dr Young repeated requests for more people to get tested if they developed even the mildest of symptoms.

Experts say it is difficult to estimate how long Queensland will continue to see cases linked to the Wacol cluster of 11 people, including five detention centre staff and six close contacts, with a possibility more infections could be found after the 14-day incubation period due to asymptomatic spread.

Dr Young aid Queenslanders needed to remain alert for community transmission, particularly during the next week.

“It’s a small cluster, but it’s a risk,” she said.

“I will not be surprised and I’m actually expecting to get more cases, but they are small numbers.”

She said it was important to ­remember it was still unknown whether the Wacol and Logan clusters were linked. Griffith University Institute for Glycomics Professor Johnson Mak said the missing link was a worry.

“More testing now will help to ensure we do not have a repeat with what Victoria experienced,” he said.