Covid-19 Qld: Eight new cases in Queensland, six in hotel quarantine

Queensland has recorded eight new Covid-19 cases, including the couple who skipped Victoria’s latest lockdown to enter the state. Six cases are in hotel quarantine.

Queensland has recorded eight new cases of Covid-19 overnight, including the couple who travelled into the state from a locked down Victoria.

The case in the 44-year-old Greater Melbourne woman was detected at Caloundra on Tuesday when she was tested alongside her husband, who required clearance for his work.

After initially testing negative, he has now returned a positive result.

The other six have been detected in hotel quarantine.

Authorities say the stage of the virus within the couple means it is less of a risk for community transmission, although the variant is not known at this stage.

There are no immediate plans to lock down hospitals and aged-care facilities but Sunshine Coast GPs will receive an extra 16,500 AstraZeneca doses through the next fortnight.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath urged anyone on the Sunshine Coast with symptoms to get tested, saying clinics were open.

Vaccine bookings at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital are full for the weekend.

Queensland Health has identified 17 close contacts, including two people in the Caloundra household where the couple was staying.

Ms D’Ath said it was good news that the Victorian couple, who travelled in Queensland after skipping the southern state’s latest lockdown on June 1, had almost recovered from the virus.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has said there are eight new Covid cases in Queensland, two of them a couple from Victoria, and six in hotel quarantine. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the husband had initially tested negative.

“We know that often happens towards the end of someone’s illness,” she said.

“Both of these individuals are towards the end of their illness.”

Dr Young said it was very good news for Queensland because it meant the risk of transmission was less.

She is still waiting on genome sequencing results to determine the variant the couple had been infected with, and Victorian authorities were working through how the couple contracted the virus.

Dr Young said the couple had not been given an exemption to enter into Queensland.

She used the latest scare to again urge people who are eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccination.

“Once we’ve got some spare capacity we’ll be reducing that age cut off below 40 (for the vaccine),” Dr Young said.

“Please keep alert to when we open up to those lower aged groups.”

The State Government has released a number of exposure sites involving the couple on the Sunshine Coast, but also Toowoomba and Goondiwindi.

Ms D’Ath said the police investigation in relation to the couple’s entry to Queensland was ongoing.

There's delays along West Tce in Caloundra with people waiting to get tested for COVID-19. We're asking everyone to stagger attendance and check other testing locations via the Qld Health site. A pop up hub is opening at 11am at Kawana Western Sports Fields, Milieu Place, Warana.

— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) June 9, 2021

“We’ll wait for that process to continue and we get a final outcome,” she said.

The minister said she did not want to jump to conclusions “until I know all of the facts”.

On May 28, Queensland banned all Victorians from entering the state without 14 days mandatory hotel quarantine or were granted an exemption.

According to the Queensland Health website, anyone who had been in Victoria from May 28 must complete a Queensland Border Declaration pass.

The pass, enforced by Queensland Police, is checked at random at roadside border checkpoints, and by emergency officers at airports, the website says.

“There are also penalties for providing false or misleading information,” the website says.

Victoria has today recorded four new local cases of Covid-19 as greater Melbourne prepares to emerge from lockdown.

Meanwhile, Metro South Health have confirmed fragments of Covid-19 have been identified in routine sewage testing at the Fairfield wastewater treatment plant.

“The fragments could either indicate the presence of an undiagnosed case of Covid-19 in the community or that a case who is no longer infectious is still shedding fragments of the virus,” a post on Queensland Health’s Metro South page states.

Authorities say the detection serves as a timely reminder for anyone with symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting and loss of taste or smell to get tested.

Sunshine Coast GPs involved in the coronavirus vaccine rollout will receive an extra 16,500 AstraZeneca doses through the next fortnight after a woman who escaped Melbourne lockdown tested positive in Caloundra.

Vaccine operations coordinator Commodore Eric Young confirmed an extra 20,000 AstraZeneca jabs had been sent to Sunshine Coast University Hospital on Thursday, bringing Queensland’s dose shipment to 95,000 this week.

The 75 GPs in the Sunshine Coast region already involved in the vaccine rollout will also receive an extra 16,500 AstraZeneca doses across the next two weeks.

Statewide, GPs are set to receive a total of 92,000 AstraZeneca doses this week.

Commodore Young said 92 per cent of all residential aged care facilities in Queensland had been visited for the second dose of the vaccine.

He said nine roving clinics would be set up in the state with teams to travel between aged care facilities that have been visited once and ask those that had initially turned down the jab if they had changed their mind.

“We continue to work with states and territories and particularly Queensland Victoria, to make sure that we are providing more vaccines to protect more Australians,” he said.

Originally published as Covid-19 Qld: Eight new cases in Queensland, six in hotel quarantine