Covid-19 case in Qatar Airways worker has Queensland battling the virus on five fronts

A new Covid-19 virus case in a Qatar Airways check-in counter worker, on top of four other outbreaks in Queensland, has the state’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young concerned.

Queensland is battling the Covid-19 virus on five fronts with a new case in a Qatar Airways check-in worker at the Brisbane International Airport who was infectious in the community for five days.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said contact tracers had identified thousands of close contacts in relation to the state’s other four ongoing virus clusters related to the unvaccinated Prince Charles Hospital casual receptionist, the NT Granites gold mine workers, the Portuguese Family Centre restaurant and a Virgin Airways flight crew member.

As the state prepares to enter a third day of lockdown on Friday, Dr Young said she was encouraged by the high numbers of people getting tested and only four new cases being recorded in the past 24 hours, two of them locally acquired.

FULL LIST: Queensland’s latest Covid exposure sites

Qatar Airways check-in area Brisbane International Airport. Picture: Liam Kidston.

But the added burden of the new Qatar Airways case has her worried.

“I now have five incidents that we’re having to manage with this additional one related to the international airport,” Dr Young said.

“Each incident in and of itself, I’m pretty confident about. They’re all been very well managed.

“But five of them simultaneously is a lot so we’ll just have to wait and see how we go.”

Dr Young said the Qatar Airways worker, in her 30s, had been infectious since last Friday.

In that time she had visited Office Works in North Lakes on June 25, Coles at Murrumba Downs on the afternoon of June 27 and is a regular attendee at Anytime Fitness gym in Griffin, in Brisbane’s north.

She also spent time with colleagues from Menzies Aviation on June 26 and June 28.

Dr Young said the woman “has probably acquired” the virus at the Brisbane International Airport.

“She will be checking in not only the passengers, but she will be involved with the crew and we do know that international flight crew are high risk,” Dr Young said.

“They fly in and they fly out so we don’t always know which of them are positive, which is why I really and truly insist people must wear masks at our international airports and our domestic airports.

“That is really critical. You don’t know who might be infectious as you’re walking around that airport.”

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young. Photo: Dan Peled.

Dr Young said a person living in the same household as the woman was being “urgently tested” for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Queensland recorded almost 30,000 tests for the pandemic virus in the past 24 hours.

Of the state’s four new cases, two were overseas acquired and the others involved community transmission.

Apart from the Qatar Airways worker, the second locally acquired case was linked to the Portuguese Family Centre cluster and was already in quarantine when testing positive.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: The fact that we’ve had a large number of tests, plus we are not seeing more wide scale community cases is very, very encouraging.

“But we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Mater Director of Infectious Diseases Paul Griffin has been appointed to lead an investigation into how the Prince Charles Hospital worker was not vaccinated, despite working outside a Covid-19 ward.

The 19-year-old hospital receptionist was infectious in the community for about 10 days, including during a holiday on Magnetic Island and Townsville.

She also worked at the hospital for two days after developing symptoms.

Originally published as Covid-19 case in Qatar Airways worker has Queensland battling the virus on five fronts