Contained: COVID positive woman left quarantine to visit hospital in full PPE

Queenslanders have been assured they have noting to fear after it was revealed two patients left hotel quarantine to go to a hospital just hours before testing positive to the mutant UK strain of COVID-19.

Queenslanders have been assured they have nothing to fear, despite revelations that two people in hotel quarantine who tested positive for COVID-19 had just hours earlier been taken to hospital for unrelated medical treatment.

Queensland Health has now confirmed that a woman who was allowed to visit a hospital before returning to her quarantine hotel while infected with the mutant coronavirus strain was in fact transported to and from the facility via ambulance in full protective gear.

The revelation comes after the government earlier refused to explain how the woman was allowed to accompany her father, also infected with the COVID strain, to the Royal Brisbane Hospital before returning to the Grand Chancellor hotel on Monday.

At 11am on Thursday, The Courier-Mail directly asked health staff about the incident, including how she was able to return to the hotel where sources say she startled staff who had not been alerted to her return.

Guests in quarantine on the balcony of Hotel Grand Chancellor. Picture: Tara Croser.

Questions were also posed about how the woman was able to leave the hotel, whether contact tracing was underway and why the community had not been informed about the woman’s movements.

But in a response shortly before 4pm on Thursday, Queensland Health refused to explain how the woman was transported back to the Grand Chancellor, only explaining the protocols for taking people to hospital.

“Alongside all jurisdictions, we’ve been managing hotel quarantine for almost a year and there are excellent national protocols in place,” the response said.

“If a patient requires transfer to hospital, they and any travelling family members, are treated as if they are COVID-19 positive and appropriate PPE protocol and measures are in place.”

However, health sources late on Thursday evening revealed the woman had in fact been allowed to accompany her ill father to hospital following a medical complaint and was transported to and from the hospital via ambulance in full PPE.

The woman, along with her father – who were returned travellers from Lebanon - had earlier that day been tested for COVID-19.

Just hours later, the pair returned a positive result for the highly infectious UK strain of the virus on day 10 of their quarantine period.

They were the fifth and sixth positive cases of COVID-19 that were directly linked to the Grand Chancellor cluster.

Their positive results sparked the evacuation of the hotel, with all 129 guests being forced into a further 14 days isolation at a different hotel.

Hotel Grand Chancellor guests were transported via ambulance to a new quarantine hotel amid concerns of COVID cluster. Picture: Tara Croser.

The revelation comes as chief health officer Jeannette Young today could not say whether she was confident all guests stayed inside their rooms, as per Queensland Health’s hotel quarantine protocol.

Instead, she said this was a matter for police to investigate.

It was yesterday revealed there are no CCTV cameras on level 7 of the hotel, which is where all people who have since tested positive – including the woman and her father - had stayed.

The Courier-Mail understands police have requested CCTV footage from multiple areas of the hotel to review guests movements with the aim of determining how the virus was able to spread.

Queensland Health initially refused to provide comment on whether an ambulance had been called to the Grand Chancellor on the evening or confirm if the woman also attended the hospital before returning to the hotel, claiming that revealing such information would be in breach of patient confidentiality.

When pressed on how the information breached the confidentiality protocol, as there was no patient identified, a Queensland Health spokeswoman said stating a returned traveller from Lebanon who tested positive was enough to cause a privacy breach.

This is despite that information coming directly from Queensland Health itself and being broadcasted nationally by both the Premier and CHO at press conferences, as well as being publicly available via Queensland Health websites.

Chief health officer Dr. Jeannette Young says she cannot be certain if all guests had stayed inside their rooms during quarantine. Picture: Attila Csaszar