Sunshine Coast, Noosa in Covid-19 lockdown after Queensland records four new cases
Sunshine Coast and Noosa residents are now in a three-day snap lockdown as the Premier says she’s “absolutely furious” one of the new local cases wasn’t vaccinated.
Sunshine Coast
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Queensland residents are on high alert after the woman who tested positive for Covid-19 after being in community for 10 days while infectious has been confirmed to have the highly-contagious Delta variant.
From 6pm Tuesday, southeast Queensland, Townsville, Palm Island and Magnetic Island went into a three-day lockdown.
Those include the 11 council areas where masks are mandatory: Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands, Moreton, Scenic Rim, Somerset and Lockyer Valley.
The lockdown is set to end at 6pm Friday, July 2.
The snap lockdown called on Tuesday came after a 19-year-old Prince Charles Hospital worker who travelled to Townsville from Brisbane tested positive.
The woman was one of four new cases of Covid-19 recorded in Queensland on Tuesday.
South East Queensland, Townsville, Palm Island and Magnetic Island will enter a 3 day lockdown from 6pm tonight to stop the spread of COVID-19. Full details to follow.
— Queensland Health (@qldhealthnews) June 29, 2021
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said two of the new cases were acquired within Queensland and two were detected in hotel quarantine from overseas.
One case was a miner from Ipswich connected to the Northern Territory outbreak, who she said presented a “low risk”.
The other was a 19-year-old clerical worker from The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane who was infectious in the community for 10 days.
She said health authorities did not know the variant of the virus the casual worker had and would receive genomic sequencing later today.
Queensland now has 41 active cases of the virus, mostly the highly-contagious Delta strain.
Sunshine Coast and Noosa residents will only be able to leave their homes for four key reasons during the lockdown.
Those include essential work and study that cannot be done from home, to care for a vulnerable person, to buy essential supplies, such as food and medication, and to exercise locally outdoors.
Residents can exercise with members of the same household or one person from outside their household.
People will still be able to leave the house to get vaccinated, and to access essential health care.
and cafes will be restricted to takeaway services and two visitors can still visit another person’s home.
Other restrictions in effect from 6pm include:
– Funerals will be capped to 20 people
– Weddings can only have 10 people
– Gyms beauty services, places of worship will all be forced to close
– Two visitors can still visit another person’s home
– Restaurants and cafes will only be allowed to provide takeaway services during the lockdown.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the number of exceptions to home lockdown was deliberately small.
“It’s really limited. We need people to not move around,” she said.
“You should now finish your day wherever you are … and go home.”
Of the 170 workers identified as contacts of the NT mine outbreak, the Premier said all had been contacted and 114 had been tested.
Of those, 112 had tested negative and two had tested positive, including the new Ipswich miner case today and the Bli Bli woman who tested positive earlier in the week.
Ms Palaszczuk said she was “absolutely furious” the Prince Charles worker had not been vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus.
The woman went to a Woolworths and gym in Brisbane while infectious and worked at the hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday before travelling from Brisbane to Townsville on Thursday.
She also travelled to Magnetic Island and visited the markets in Townsville.
Two people in the woman’s household are unwell, as well as one of her friends, with testing underway.
“This particular individual … sat outside the Covid ward at The Prince Charles Hospital,” Dr Young said. “There might be a link there.”
“It is a significant risk.”
Ms Palaszczuk apologised for the lockdown.
“I know this is going to be tough for a lot of families,” she said.
“I don’t want to see people end up in our hospitals and on ventilators.”
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