Covid Qld: Health Minister Yvette D’Ath reveals latest case numbers one day after lockdown fears eased

Queensland has recorded no new Covid-19 cases in a “huge sigh of relief” 24 hours after the Premier warned the next two days would be critical in determining whether the state would avoid a lockdown. But the Chief Health Officer warns “we’re not out of the woods yet”.

Queensland has recorded no new Covid-19 cases 24 hours after the Premier warned the next two days would be critical in determining whether the state would avoid a lockdown.

A family of five set the state into a spin after they all tested positive, a cluster which authorities have now linked to NSW.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said it was a “sigh of relief” that the state had managed to record no new cases a day after the threat of a lockdown loomed large, and praised the actions of Queenslanders who had done the right thing in getting tested, wearing masks and continuing to social distance.

Mr Miles thanked Queenslanders for doing the right thing, and said the region could “breathe a sigh of relief”.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, though,” he said.

“But this is the best result we could have hoped for at this point of the outbreak.”

Fears of a lockdown were high on Saturday morning, but the revelation that the five new cases recorded were all members of the same family and were all already in quarantine eased the pressure slightly.

But both Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young warned that the next 48 hours would be critical if a lockdown was to be avoided, with calls for people in affected areas to get tested and quarantine.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young on Sunday said she was certain the family of five in south Brisbane contracted the virus from one of three NSW men who entered Queensland for essential work.

“(A gentleman) crossed the border from NSW into Queensland, and then … went and stayed with this family who’ve since tested positive,” Dr Young said.

“We did get confirmation yesterday that two of those three have tested positive, so I’m now confident that’s where the virus came into Queensland to infect those five people, but those two people had minimal exposure in Queensland.

“They had not been around and about so that is good news.”

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young. Picture: Annette Dew

Dr Young warned, however, that we’re “not out of the woods yet” but reassured Queenslanders that “we’re nearly there” when it comes to getting everyone vaccinated.

Authorities were desperately trying to determine if the NSW man – who late on Saturday was confirmed as Covid-19-positive – was the source of infection of five new community cases of Covid-19 announced on Saturday and how he crossed the border, but Dr Young said she understood everything was followed properly, however police are still investigating.

“The issues about what border pass they had is under police management... They were only here for two days,” Dr Young said.

Three people entered, with one testing negative and entering home quarantine, and the two positive cases now back in NSW.

Dr Young said there were a few situations of positive cases that Queenslanders should be aware of.

A person who returned from West Africa to Charters Towers and Townsville tested positive, but Dr Young was “very, very confident” that it was a historical case and that she’s not concerned about it.

The other case was another positive truck driver who was in Queensland while infectious on September 7 and 8, with details of exposure sites to come.

There were 18,069 vaccinations on Saturday.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath re-emphasised the need for Queensland health staff members to get vaccinated, confirming that a deadline has been set for all of them to get both shots of the vaccine, with the first dose needed by the end of the month and workers to be fully vaccinated by the end of October.

Ms D’Ath said the state government has been engaging with unions and with executive management teams in the hospital to look at the circumstances of each individual case.

“It won’t be a blanket approach,” she said.

About 13,500 of Queensland Health’s hospital-based workforce remain unvaccinated, prompting the State Government to mandate the jab.

Ms D’Ath said that 80 per cent of the entire workforce has already had one dose of the vaccine.

Ms D’Ath said she was confident state-run aged care centres would meet their vaccination targets in time but she was concerned about those facilities in the private sector.

Originally published as Covid Qld: Health Minister Yvette D’Ath reveals latest case numbers one day after lockdown fears eased