Brisbane singer cuts tour short, tests positive for coronavirus

Queensland Music Awards winner Jaguar Jonze has tested positive for coronavirus after cutting her first US tour short ‘to be safe.’

BRISBANE singer Jaguar Jonze has urged Australians to self-isolate beyond government restrictions after she contracted COVID-19 despite following recommended hygiene measures.

The Queensland Music Award winner, whose real name is Deena Lynch, cancelled her first US tour amid the global coronavirus outbreak and organised a flight back to Sydney late last week, where she could go into isolation away from her at-risk mother.

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After developing symptoms rapidly following her arrival in Sydney, she had to fight to get tested and returned a positive result on Tuesday, four days after arriving in the country.

“They were only taking people for tests if they’ve been in contact with a positive case,” Lynch said.

“I was feeling fine on all my flights until I got home. Then I got all the symptoms in a matter of hours. No one got their temperatures scanned, our addresses for self-isolation weren’t recorded down, and I had paramedics come on my flight after it landed but with no transparency about what it was for, except to report if we were feeling feverish.”

Deena Lynch (aka Jaguar Jonze) has contracted coronavirus.

“My flight isn’t on the list of confirmed cases on flights either and then I had to really fight for my test and told investigators that they should be putting my flight onto that list.”

Lynch went into isolation with her partner, who was working from home, but said she “would hate to think the spread that could happen if the situation was different”.

“The band and I were vigilant about hand sanitisers and masks to the point that I had to buy hand cream for my dry, cracked skin – yet I still caught it,” Lynch said.

“In New York, we elbow bumped everybody. The take away for me is that, it’s infectious and it can happen to anybody. We need to be smart and take the social distancing and self-isolation seriously, beyond the measures the governments are currently imposing because it isn’t enough to protect society.”