Locals of this quiet town are outraged after a woman brought Covid from Melbourne

Residents of a small town have taken to social media to express outrage after a woman, who has tested positive to COVID-19, was allowed into Queensland without completing quarantine.

Residents of a Far North Queensland town have taken to social media to express outrage that a woman who tested positive to COVID-19 was permitted to leave a hot spot to travel to their area.

But others expressed support for the woman who had originally received a negative test result.

Several members of the more than 6000-strong Mareeba Community Noticeboard Facebook group expressed their anger that a Mareeba woman who flew to Queensland from Melbourne has brought a new case of the coronavirus into the region.

“How hard is it to stay put,” Joyce N Thomas wrote.

Marianna Luckie called the woman selfish.

“It was a very selfish act,” she wrote.

“I can’t understand why someone would come from a hotspot to a clean area like the north.”

Lynette Garven and Steffany Fenton agreed.

“Selfish, put others at risk. Not good enough … why can’t people just stay where they are, it’s really not that hard,” Ms Garven wrote.

“Agreed! I’m so scared now of going out anywhere,” Ms Fenton added.

“I am very scared. I am very vulnerable and at the top end of the endangered list … You are all getting the vac(cine) to protect folk like me.

“This person knew when on the Sunshine Coast they were in jeopardy of carrying the virus and they still left the SE to … catch a plane and fly for two hours … to come to an area devoid of any contamination (sic),” she wrote.

The woman, in her 20s, flew to the Sunshine Coast on July 13 and received a text message from Victoria Health on July 15, advising she had attended a ‘Tier one’ exposure site at the Melbourne’s Young and Jackson Pub in the CBD on July 10.

Mareeba residents have expressed outrage after a woman who travelled from Melbourne later tested positive to Covid in their area. Picture: Bronwyn Wheatcroft

The student immediately got tested for Covid but did not self-isolate while waiting for her results.

Instead, she visited friends, went shopping and ate at a restaurant that same afternoon and night, according to Queensland Health officials.

The woman continued on to Mareeba on July 16, the same day that she received a negative test result – despite both Queensland Health and Victorian Health officials confirming the woman should have self-isolated for 14 days as soon as she received the text message, regardless of the test results.

It is understood the woman, who is studying in Melbourne, came home for the school holidays and caught an Uber, a bus and the Airtrain before flying to Cairns from Brisbane on Virgin flight VA791, where a relative picked her up from the airport.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, Jeannette Young, said although the woman was already vaccinated, she started developing COVID-19 symptoms on July 17 and went to the Atherton fever clinic on July 18 for another swab.

That test returned a positive result late Monday.

Aerial photo of the Mareeba on the Atherton Tablelands. Picture: Andrea Falvo

In the Mareeba Facebook group – and before the health departments confirmed the woman had allegedly flouted the rules – some residents had stuck up for the woman.

“Oh my, settle down people, by all reports this young lady did everything right, did she do this or did she do that, well SHE is the cats mother, love a good conspiracy and storytelling, settle down and see how it plays out,” David D’Alton wrote.

Holly Bolton said the woman “must feel horrible” if she was reading the comments.

“She tested negative … was clear to fly home. Flew home, tested positive. If you check into places like you’re supposed to do, no issues,” she wrote.

“Stay home, wear masks, sanitise hands blah blah blah (sic).

“We’re Mareeba, not invisible to the virus. She done what she was meant to do (sic).

“She didn’t test positive till she was here already. Poor thing must be reading half the comments and feel horrible.”

A Queensland Health (QH) spokeswoman said the woman should have self-isolated for 14 days straight after receiving the text message from the Department of Health and Human Services Victoria (DHHS) on July 15.

Melbourne’s Young and Jackson pub, in the CBD – pictured closed during one of stage four of Melbourne’s lockdowns in 2020 – has been identified as a Covid exposure site that a Mareeba woman attended on July 10. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

A DHHS spokesman directed the Courier Mail to the Victorian government’s dedicated coronavirus web site, where it explains that states three tier levels, with tier one being the highest and required isolating even if a negative Covid test was received.

“Anyone who has visited a Tier one exposure site during the times listed must immediately isolate, get a COVID-19 test and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure,” the web site states.

It was not clear if the text message sent to the woman also instructed her to quarantine.

The QH spokeswoman said, once the Mareeba woman tested positive to Covid, her closest contacts – including the relative who picked her up from the Cairns airport – would be contacted and advised to isolate for a fortnight if they were not already.

“If they are deemed to be a close contact they would be told to isolate,” she said.

Whether or not other people had to isolate would depend on the level of contact they had with the woman.

“If you’re determined to be at low risk, you can isolate until you receive negative results,” the spokeswoman said.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young speaks during a press conference at Parliament House in Brisbane on Tuesday. Picture: NCA Newswire/Dan Peled

The spokeswoman said because the Queensland resident had left Melbourne days before Queensland Health declared the city as a Covid hotspot – and before it went into lockdown on July 15 – the woman was not required to enter quarantine on her entry into Queensland.

She said anyone entering the state from Melbourne after it was declared a hot spot was now required to complete 14 days of quarantine.

Anyone who has been alerted to having been at a Covid exposure venue in Victoria is required to “continue to quarantine even after receiving a negative result,” according to the Queensland Health web site.

The section, titled “Victoria exposure venues”, also provides other advice and states anyone who had been in a listed exposure site after 1am May 26 was required to quarantine in government arranged accommodation.

The Young and Jackson, on Swanston Street, is on the list.

The QH spokeswoman would not confirm which hospital the woman was in due to patient privacy, but the Courier Mail understands she was to be taken to a Brisbane hospital today.