Rests on the tests: Possibility of Queensland lockdown extension decision falls on test results

Contingency plans are in place for an extension of Queensland’s lockdown beyond three days, with authorities waiting on thousands of test results.

Contingency plans are in train for the possibility of an extended lockdown in Queensland, as contact tracers work hard to stem the spread of the Covid-19 virus on four fronts.

Health authorities are sweating on the results of thousands of tests throughout the state in an attempt to pick-up any silent transmission of the virus, before deciding on whether the three-day lockdown in southeast Queensland, Townsville, Magnetic Island and Palm Island should go beyond 6pm tomorrow.

Fears remain high after an unvaccinated 19-year-old Prince Charles Hospital receptionist working outside the Covid-19 ward tested positive this week after spending 10 days in the community while infectious with the dangerous Delta variant.

Her brother has also tested positive.

Genomic sequencing has linked the woman’s infection to a patient in the hospital’s Covid-19 ward.

Her case is one of three ongoing outbreaks of the Delta variant in Queensland – one triggered by a NT Granites goldmine worker who caught the virus in Brisbane hotel quarantine, and another involving a Virgin flight crew member.

A fourth cluster of the Alpha variant has also spread out of hotel quarantine this month, resulting in a Covid-19 cluster among diners at the Portuguese Family Centre restaurant at Ellen Grove, on Brisbane’s southwestern outskirts.

A lone runner on Brisbane’s Story Bridge yesterday. Picture: Patrick Hamilton/AFP

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said most of Queensland’s 42 active cases of the virus were the Delta variant, admitting she was “running out of ideas” of what she could do to contain the highly contagious strain.

“We know that the Delta variant is virtually impossible to control,” she said.

“We’re doing our best to manage that within our hotels but they’re not designed for that process and we’re also doing our best to manage them in our hospitals but it is a very, very dangerous variant.

“I’m going to have to look very carefully what is the next step to make our hotels and our hospitals even safer than what they were.”

The Prince Charles Hospital casual clerical employee worked for two days last week after developing symptoms of the virus and then travelled to Townsville and Magnetic Island for four days on holiday before testing positive

In an email to hospital staff, the facility’s executive director Tami Photinos identified the hospital’s Breeze Cafe as an exposure site between 4.45-6pm on June 23.

She said close contacts at the cafe and among staff working both inside and outside the Covid-19 ward had been identified and were in quarantine.

The woman’s brother attended a sports camp on Monday at the Shaw Park Tennis Centre, in Wooloowin, in Brisbane’s inner-north, while unknowingly infectious.

Queensland recorded three new locally acquired cases of the virus yesterday, all close contacts of existing cases.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a decision on whether the lockdown would go beyond the three days would not be made until the latest data was known tomorrow.

“Hopefully, we can get through these three days, fingers crossed, and things will be able to return to normal,” she said.

Infectious diseases physician Paul Griffin said it was too early to make a call on the lockdown based on one day’s figures.

“We’ll start to know if the situation is better or worse than first anticipated in the next two to three days,” Associate Professor Griffin said.

“We’re still only in the infancy of our testing in response to this. It’s too early to say too much. I think we need to be prepared for the worse but hope for the best.

“Everyone understands that this is a precarious situation; if we don’t do the right thing it’s likely to get a lot worse.”

Prof Griffin said getting many more Australians vaccinated was the best chance of being able to “live with this virus”.

“Eradication is clearly not feasible any more,” he said.

“If we have high coverage of the vaccine, coupled with the same sort of mitigation that we might do for influenza, for example, which is get people tested and isolate them … then there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to live with this.

“Lockdowns and border restrictions, that’s not the destination of where we’d like to be in terms of how we control this.”