Three-hour queues, thousands in quarantine as fears of COVID-19 spread to north Brisbane

Hundreds of people are turning up at COVID testing clinics north of Brisbane ‘paranoid’ about the complacency for social distancing restrictions fearing it is only a matter of time before another suburb becomes a hotspot.

The recent outbreak of coronavirus has “terrified” residents on the northside of Brisbane, many queuing for up to three-and-a-half hours at drive-through testing clinics over the past two days.

More than 55,000 people were tested for coronavirus in Queensland on Tuesday, breaking a statewide record.

Brighton’s John Zyzniewski said the line of cars at the Strathpine drive-through clinic stretched about 700 metres around the block but his peace of mind from a negative result was well worth any inconvenience.

The defence contractor began to show symptoms of a head cold after driving through Ipswich, one of the locations featured on the Queensland Government contact tracing alert.

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“The more I thought about it the more terrified I became, I eventually talked myself into going to get the test,” he said.

“Once I got inside I felt a lot calmer, the staff were brilliant, they’d been on their feet wearing PPE all day but they were very lovely and explained everything.”

Despite no confirmed cases of coronavirus on the northside residents report the small degree of separation between suburbs is a genuine cause for concern.

Mother-of-two Sally Fitzgerald said the virus could easily spread to the northside given how many people lived and worked on opposite sides of the river.

“There’s someone I know that is a close contact of the Carindale woman (who contracted coronavirus),” Ms Fitzgerald said.

“It doesn’t take long to make a connection to someone.”

Sally Fitzgerald, with daughters Betty (7) and Elsie (4), was relieved to have received a negative test result this week.

There are 16 active cases of coronavirus in Queensland following an outbreak at a Youth Detention Centre in Wacol, and just over 2440 people are in active quarantine on the northside of Brisbane.

Bracken Ridge man Ben Morris “started connecting the dots and getting worried” after he realised he was just three degrees of separation from a COVID case reported at a school in Brisbane’s south.

“It’s difficult because you can’t see it, and you get paranoid about it at some point,” Mr Morris said.

“It doesn’t help that there are a lot of people around really not doing all of the things they should be doing, like wearing masks.

“I was at Coles Aspley the other day and no one was social distancing and that’s all it takes to spread, I think people have a false sense of security here so I do have some concerns there could be another outbreak.”