Queensland’s Delta cluster swells to 102 after 13 new cases in past 24 hours

A decision on lifting Queensland’s lockdown will be made on Sunday morning, but whatever happens, more than 10,000 people won’t be able to leave their homes.

More than 10,000 Queenslanders will remain in lockdown tomorrow regardless of the State Government’s decision regarding a lifting of the restrictions.

It comes after 13 new cases in the past 24 hours, all linked to the Delta cluster, which Deputy Premier Steven Miles said was encouraging news.

The cluster has now swelled to 102 cases, with 12 of the new cases confirmed as not being out in the community while infectious.

Investigations are continuing into whether the remaining case was infectious in the community, with more details to be released this afternoon.

Two of the new cases are household contacts of a known case at the Indooroopilly karate class, one is a close contact from the karate class, five are household contacts of Ironside State School cases, four cases are household contacts of Indooroopilly State High School cases, and one is a close contact of a known case at Brisbane Grammar School.

Mr Miles said 40,835 tests were undertaken in the past 24 hours with 144 active cases across Queensland.

He said new cases will continue to be recorded in households of close contacts while 10,091 people were currently in home quarantine across the state.

“Whatever happens tomorrow, those 10,091 people will need to stay in quarantine, and depending on their circumstances, that may be for some time,” Mr Miles said.

Meanwhile Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has received a negative result for her final test in hotel quarantine and will be released tomorrow morning.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles will announce Queensland’s Covid case numbers at 10am today. Picture: Jono Searle

Mr Miles said the state government was still pushing for a quarantine facility, stating the hotel quarantine system has had several failures.

“”We want a dedicated facility, dedicated infection control.”

He said the state government had been calling for a facility since December.

Mr Miles said authorities had been working with border communities on ensuring the closure runs as smoothly as possible for residents living on the QLD/NSW border.

“We have also delivered to those councils much more in terms of stimulus payments, much more than they incur in cost.”

He said they would continue to work with them to ensure the travel between the two states, when necessary for those living on either side, would run as easily as possible.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said all 13 cases were recorded in home quarantine.

Dr Young said it would be a lengthy time for people in quarantine because as household members tested positive, another 14 days were added onto their stay at home orders.

Dr Young said anyone in Cairns who had any symptoms at all needed to come forward to get tested.

Dr Young said she cannot predict tomorrow’s numbers and needed to see how many cases there were tomorrow before she made a decision on whether to lift lockdown tomorrow.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said people should not hesitate to get tested if they were unwell.

Deputy police commissioner Steve Gollschewski said more than 10,000 vehicles were intercepted in the past 24 hours.

He said there was a small group of people who were persistently doing the wrong thing.

A woman who fled hotel quarantine on the Gold Coast still remains on the run, Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said.

“Please give yourself up because we’re not stopping until we find you,” he pleaded with the woman.

“She does not want to be caught. Unfortunately in policing we deal with these fugitive situations a lot.”

It comes after Dr Young said while a decision on lifting the lockdown would not be made until Sunday morning, case numbers in the 24 hours to Saturday morning would be critical.

Queensland recorded 10 new cases on Friday, all linked to the current Indooroopilly cluster and the majority in quarantine while infectious.

However, Dr Young said she would not make a final decision until Sunday morning.

“It depends on how we go over the next few days,” she said.

It came as she warned the mask mandate could continue through until Christmas, noting how effective it was in stopping the spread of the Delta variant.