Residents and hotel guests given health briefings after coronavirus outbreak at Oracle building on the Gold Coast

Queensland health officials have held crisis talks with residents at the ground zero of the state’s coronavirus outbreak after they expressed anger at being kept in the dark over the drama and what measures they should be taking.

HEALTH officials have held crisis talks with fearful residents and guests at the scene of Queensland’s first confirmed coronavirus case.

Health officers tonight delivered briefings at the Oracle building at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, where a 44-year-old Chinese national had been staying before testing positive to the contagious disease.

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Residents had expressed anger at being kept in the dark about the drama and what measures they should be taking before the tense meeting.

Further briefings are expected to be held tomorrow.

It is believed the man, who remains in Gold Coast University Hospital, had been staying in a privately-owned apartment on the 37th floor of the Oracle building, which is also home to luxury resort Peppers Broadbeach, a favourite haunt of visiting celebrities.

Coronoavirus watch at Peppers in Broadbeach. Pics Adam Head

Residents and guests who spoke to The Courier-Mail yesterday expressed their frustration at a lack of instruction coming from both Queensland Health and Peppers resort management.

“We’ve been in the same building as him – shared the same lifts with him,” said one man, who wished to remain anonymous.

“We’ve contacted Peppers to find out what we should do and they can’t tell us anything.”

Peppers is part of the Accor stable of hotels and in a statement, an Accor spokesperson said full precautions were being taken in accordance with guidelines from health department officials.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests and colleagues is our highest priority and we are following the advice of the Australian Government’s Department of Health to further limit any risk,” the statement said.

Cleanliness and hygiene are always a high priority for us. On being alerted to a potential risk in the Oracle Building we acted immediately and carried out additional sanitisation protocols, which included more frequent deep cleaning and disinfecting of the areas that form part of the hotel.”

Private residences in the building share several common features including entrances, lift and common areas.