Queensland on unprecedented level of Covid alert as health authorites face triple threat

Queensland has been plunged into its highest level of alert since the Covid pandemic started, with a Virgin flight attendant testing positive, Sydney in lockdown and a NT mine worker infected in Brisbane hotel quarantine.

Health authorities are on their highest alert since the start of the pandemic as a growing number of highly contagious Covid-19 cases creep closer to Queensland’s borders.

On Sunday, Virigin Australia issued a statement confirming a crew member that flew into Brisbane and the Gold Coast from Sydney had tested positive for Covid-19.

Health authorities are contacting any passenger who has been in close contact with the crew member.

A full list of affected flights have been released.

A crew member from a Virgin Australia flight has tested positive to Covid. Picture: Sarah Matray

After holding out for several days New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian buckled on Saturday and plunged 5.5 million Greater Sydney and surrounding residents into a two-week lockdown in a last-ditch effort to contain the region’s Covid-19 outbreak.

Queensland authorities quickly responded – ordering anyone who has been in the Greater Sydney, Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains areas since June 21 to isolate for two weeks since they left.

Separately, Queensland contact tracers are scrambling to find and isolate hundreds of workers who returned to Brisbane from a Northern Territory mine site where a worker tested positive to Covid-19.

The man, employed at the Granites Gold Mine, tested positive on Saturday – likely to the highly infectious Delta strain – after spending a night at a Brisbane hotel quarantine facility on June 18.

Queensland Health said genome sequencing was underway to determine whether the man became infectious in Queensland or Victoria.

The infected miner and 70 of his close contacts are now in the Howard Springs quarantine facility and contact tracing has started to locate about 900 people known to have left the mine and travelled to other locations including Brisbane, Darwin, Alice Springs and Perth.

The miners are among thousands of potential Covid-positive cases who have returned to Queensland from interstate.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian sends Sydney into a two-week lockdown. Picture: Getty Images)

Health authorities on Saturday admitted they “don’t know” how many people have left Sydney’s Covid-19 epicentre and are now moving about in Queensland.

A six-day window of uncertainty exists between the first sign of a Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney on June 11 and the reintroduction of border passes on June 17.

All of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong were plunged into a lockdown from 6pm Saturday with stay-at-home orders in place until midnight on July 9 after the Bondi cluster reached a staggering 80 cases.

Queensland Health on Saturday evening expanded restrictions, meaning anybody who has been in those regions since June 21 must isolate and get tested if they are now in the state.

Authorities are unsure how many of the 5.5 million Sydneysiders may be in Queensland, with chief health officer Jeannette Young remaining fearful of an outbreak of Covid-19 Delta variant.

“I really don’t know where we might see a case,” she said.

“It’s really important people continue to come forward and get tested.

“Please reconsider your need to travel down into NSW – it’s far better if you can stay in Queensland.”

Queensland authorities fear the Delta variant, which can transmit in as little as five seconds, will pose an ongoing risk to the state – with community infection almost inevitable.

On Friday Queensland lifted further restrictions, making them the lowest since the start of Covid-19 and the state’s vaccination doses are expected to reach record numbers this week.

Queensland recorded one new case overnight on Friday – it was acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine – and there has been no community transmission.