Two crew members linked to NZ man with ‘new COVID-19 strain’ test positive on ship anchored off Qld

Two sailors on a cargo ship could be evacuated to hospital after testing positive to COVID-19, which is feared to be a strain not yet seen here. It comes as Queensland officially records no new cases overnight.

Two crew members on board a cargo ship anchored off Queensland’s Sunshine Coast have tested positive to COVID-19.

All 19 crew members on board the Sofrana Surville were tested on Wednesday off the coast of Mooloolaba after they were stopped from docking at Brisbane.

A New Zealand engineer, who had worked on the same ship last week, tested positive to COVID-19 on Saturday in New Zealand.

It was originally reported the engineer had tested positive to a strain of the virus not seen in New Zealand or Australia before.

It comes after Queensland records no new cases of COVID-19 overnight.

A total of 1,203,184 tests have been taken in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, with 1165 of those coming back positive.

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said in relation to the cargo ship cases, it was not yet counted as a Queensland case as the crew members had not yet been brought to Australian soil.

“A meeting is underway to determine if they need to be evacuated to the mainland, and which hospital they would be sent to,” Mr Miles told reporters in Bundaberg on Thursday.

“We are continuing to monitor that ship.”

Two crew members on board the Sofrana Surville have tested positive to COVID-19.

He said New Zealand had asked Queensland to run genomic sequencing tests to determine whether the cases were linked to the case of new strain.

“That can take up to a week, but we’ll do the work asked by the New Zealand government,” he said.

General manager of Maritime Safety Queensland, Angus Mitchell, said on Wednesday there had been no reports of illness on board.

“An engineer who worked on this vessel and another has tested positive … it is a strain they haven’t seen in New Zealand before,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

“They are still trying to work out where he got it from, but either of the two international visiting ships are an obvious place.

There were no other cases of COVID-19 reported in Queensland on Thursday, with the state now counting only four active cases.

Mr Miles said it was a stark contrast with “an awful 24 hours around the world.”

“We in Australia, especially in Queensland, continue to do well, but this pandemic is far from over,” he said.

“It continues to get worse.”

Originally published as Two crew members linked to NZ man with ‘new COVID-19 strain’ test positive on ship anchored off Qld