Ipswich water park Orion Lagoon latest Covid-19 exposure site

Orion Lagoon staff member tests positive to Covid-19 forcing the public pool to be closed and close contacts into isolation.

As a popular public water park at Ipswich closes following Covid-19 exposure, Ipswich City Council has revealed when its staff member tested positive for the virus and when they were last at the site.

The council announced on Tuesday that Orion Lagoon, located within Orion Springfield Central shopping centre, and all related facilities would be “thoroughly cleaned” following a worker’s positive test result.

“The Lagoon will remain closed until both the site and staff have been cleared to re-open,” the council shared to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon.

An Ipswich City Council spokesman has since revealed an employee of the contractor who operates Orion Lagoon on behalf of the council received the positive test result for Covid-19 after 11am on Tuesday morning.

“As soon as the worker noticed symptoms of feeling unwell on December 22, they voluntarily went for a Covid-19 test and have been in isolation since this time,” he said.

The spokesman assured that while test results were not received until Tuesday, the person had not been in the community the past week.

“Since receiving this positive notification, the pool operator in conjunction with (the) council and Queensland Health has identified any close contacts of the worker and they are now all in isolation as well, pending the results of their own Covid-19 tests,” he said.

Orion Lagoon covers a large area of more than 3.6km and is particularly popular during the summer school holidays. It includes a public swimming lagoon, a lap pool, a toddler wading area, barbecues, and picnic areas.

The immensely popular water park Orion Lagoon will remain closed until further notice.

A number of Ipswich residents took to Facebook to share their concerns following the council’s announcement of the virus exposure on Tuesday.

“Wowsers (there are) going to be a lot in iso (sic) there were a cast of thousands there!” one user wrote.

Despite the council’s confirmation of Covid-19 exposure at the site, there are still only two exposure venues listed for Ipswich on the Queensland Health website.

There is one exposure date of Tuesday December 14, with locations including Redbank Plains Family Health Centre and the main entrance of Ipswich Courthouse.

Orion Lagoon is not the only Ipswich location to be excluded from contact tracing, with Probe Group workers at Springfield’s GE building also reportedly being directed to get tested and isolate after a person tested positive for Covid-19.

The location is yet to be added as an exposure site to the Queensland Health website.

News of the council worker testing positive to the virus came as Queensland recorded 1158 new cases in the past 24 hours.

Ipswich City now has a total of 256 Covid-19 cases, 32 of which were acquired overseas, 50 locally and from a known contact, 12 locally and from an unknown contact, and two from interstate.

The origin of 160 Covid-19 cases in Ipswich remain under investigation.