‘Concerns’ of community transmission in Queensland despite recording zero new cases on Saturday

Queensland has recorded zero new local Covid-19 cases on Saturday, but authorities are still ‘concerned’ about the virus circulating in the community.

Queensland authorities are still concerned about Covid-19 circulating within the Gold Coast community, despite having zero new acquired Covid-19 cases on Saturday.

Acting chief health officer Peter Aitken said having no new Covid-19 cases was “good news”, especially for Gold Coast residents.

But he said the state was not “out of the woods yet” and encouraged all residents to get tested and vaccinated.

Dr Aitken said the link between recent locally acquired cases remained unknown but all close contacts of those cases had so far returned negative tests.

“It is still a concern,” he said.

“We’re only a couple of days after that (first case was detected) and we’d obviously like to get through a full 14 day incubation period.

“If you’ve got symptoms, come forward for testing. We need to identify anyone who may have been exposed.”

Acting chief health officer Peter Aitken said authorities were “still concerned” about possible community transmission. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said 69.39 per cent of Queenslanders aged 16 and over were fully vaccinated, while 81.1 per cent of eligible residents have had at least one dose.

The updated figures show the state remains on track to hit its predicted 70 per cent target on Monday.

Once that is achieved, interstate residents from hotspot areas will be permitted to enter Queensland but must complete home quarantine, be fully vaccinated and return a negative test before entering.

Queensland recorded zero new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, something Dr Aitken said was “good news”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Despite the “good news”, it remains unclear if this year’s Schoolies event will go ahead after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was mindful of a potential outbreak occurred during the three-week event, which starts on November 20.

“We don’t want to cancel Schoolies. I want schoolies to go ahead, but it’s going to depend what’s going to happen over the next seven days,” she said on Friday.

“If we see more unlinked community transmission on the Gold Coast in the next 24 to 48 hours, we may have to put in some further restrictions.”

Her comments came after a mystery case was detected in a Gold Coast Uber driver on Thursday.

He was one of two new local cases; the second being a Beaudesert teenage linked to the Moree cluster revealed on Wednesday.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Friday said the Schoolies festival may not go ahead this year but would depend what happened over the next week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Authorities were initially put on alert after two community cases were confirmed on Wednesday.

One of those was an unvaccinated person from Warwick who attended an event in the northern NSW town of Moree, and who had been in the community for 10 days.

The Warwick RSL club and Condamine Sports Club were listed as exposure sites.

The other mystery infection was a 32-year-old man from Pacific Pines, on the Gold Coast, who was in the community for up to six days and had one jab.

Queensland plans to open its borders to fully vaccinated people on December 17, when it is anticipated that 80 per cent of its population will be fully vaccinated.

Originally published as ‘Concerns’ of community transmission in Queensland despite recording zero new cases on Saturday