Qld Covid update: Four new cases confirmed in Brisbane

Queensland has recorded four new cases of Covid-19, three of them locally acquired and connected to existing cases. It comes as authorities reveal how a teenage staffer at the Prince Charles Hospital was infected.

Queensland has recorded four new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, three of them as a result of community transmission.

One was acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

Genomic sequencing has revealed that Tuesday’s case of an unvaccinated teenage Prince Charles Hospital worker, who worked near a Covid area, was linked to a ‘repeat’ traveller who was being treated for Covid-19 at the hospital.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said all of the latest locally acquired cases were close contacts of existing cases and carried lower risk to the community.

One is the brother of the Prince Charles worker, while another is linked to the Portuguese restaurant cluster.

The third was a Virgin crew member on the same flight as the infected flight attendant. Authorities are trying to work out that person’s movements before they were put in quarantine.

Ms Palaszczuk urged people to keep an eye out for the growing list of exposure sites and asked people to follow lockdown rules, including wearing masks.

She said there had been reports from the Gold Coast of people not wearing masks.

She said she understood it was a difficult time for small businesses, and urged the public to support their local restaurants with takeaways.

Queensland now has 42 active cases of coronavirus, which Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said was a concern because many of them had the Delta variant.

Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks during a Covid update press conference on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Dr Young said the younger brother of the hospital worker became infectious on June 26 while on Magnetic Island and attended a tennis camp at Wooloowin on Monday.

She said fears about how they had travelled to the island were somewhat allayed because they had remained in their car while on a ferry, reducing the risk of widespread infection.

Following the Prince Charles Hospital case, Dr Young called on health care workers, aged care and disability service employees to come forward for Covid-19 vaccinations.

“You’re a priority,” she said.

Dr Young called a meeting of all hospital and health services to ensure all hospital workers had been vaccinated.

She said she believed the Prince Charles worker should have been vaccinated and the fact that she worked outside a Covid area was “semantics”.

She said the Prince Charles Hospital did not think that the corridor outside the Covid-19 ward was a risk.

But she said the Delta variant of the virus “was almost impossible to control”.

“I’m running out of ideas here about what we can do,” she said.

“This (pandemic) is breaching every rule book.”

Dr Young said she wanted the 110,000 Queensland Health workers to be vaccinated but again said she did not believe people under 40 should get the AstraZeneca vaccine because “they are at increased risk of getting the rare clotting syndrome”.

“I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queenslander dying from a ... clotting illness.”

“We are not in a position that I need to ask young, fit, healthy people to put their health on the line.

“We don’t have enough Pfizer vaccine to just say ‘right let’s vaccinate everyone’.”

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said genomic sequencing had revealed that the hospital worker contracted the virus from someone being treated for COVID at the hospital who had travelled several times to Indonesia.

He said every month about 40,000 Australian citizens and about 6000 permanent visa holders were allowed to leave the country.

He said many of them then returned, putting the community at risk.

“It’s not good enough that the borders are open for the Prime Minister’s corporate mates,” he said.

Ms Palaszczuk said the Federal Government needed to reduce the caps on international arrivals, saying the nation was at a “pressure cooker moment”.

“There are a large number of people that are travelling overseas for business ... and there are questions that need to be answered about why they are leaving without being vaccinated,” she said.

She said a regional quarantine facility near Toowoomba could have been built by now.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the Covid-19 pandemic is breaching every rule in the book. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Questioned around why the 19-year-old wasn’t vaccinated, Ms Palaszczuk said there was a direction in place which wasn’t followed and that someone would be held accountable.

“It wasn’t a guideline,” she said.

“The person who brought the virus into Queensland was a regular traveller, not a vulnerable Australian returning home ... who was unvaccinated.”

The Premier said FIFO workers are now also in the frame for vaccination.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said Queensland was running out of Pfizer and had asked for 100,000 more doses, but had been advised there would be no additional supply.

Some sites would run out of their Pfizer stocks by July 5.

“We have been denied any further stocks of vaccines,” Ms D’Ath said.

“We have about eight days’ stock left for Pfizer. We are getting to the point that we will have to start prioritising second doses.”

Corrective service officers and prisoners have also been told to isolate after coming into contact with the police watchhouse.

“Approximately 50 officers and a number of prisoners were considered contacts as they visited the police watchhouse while a positive case was present,” a Queensland Corrective Services spokeswoman said tonight.

“As a precaution, officers and prisoners who were in the watchhouse, or who dealt with prisoners who had been in the watchhouse during those timeframes were identified.

“The officers were asked to self-isolate and get tested, and the prisoners were placed in quarantine within the centres and were subject to testing.

“All have tested negative, with one test result outstanding at this point.”

Earlier today, Ms D’Ath implored people to stay at home so the lockdown doesn’t blow out.

“This is the Delta variant, it is a whole other level and so much more contagious, instead of fifteen minutes we are talking about seconds for transmission” Ms D’Ath said.

“This lockdown is so important, what we do in the next three days could change what happens for the next 30 days.”

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath says about two-thirds of Queensland Health workers had been vaccinated. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Ms D’Ath this morning told Brisbane radio about two-thirds of the state’s health workforce has been vaccinated and asked the remaining third to get the jab.

She said she would be asking why a 19-year-old woman who now has the Delta variant of the disease was allowed to work so closely to potential Covid positive cases while unvaccinated, and who was responsible for putting her in that position.

“It is not mandatory across the entire healthcare workforce, however, it is a lawful directive that those working in Covid wards or quarantine must be vaccinated, that is clear and must be followed” she said.

“We will be investigating why she was allowed to work as the receptionist at this ward.

“There may have been some grey area with the hospital thinking she was technically outside the ward but she absolutely should have been vaccinated.”

Ms D’Ath said everyone in Queensland Health had been offered vaccination and that the Pfizer vaccine would be available for anyone who wanted it, despite limited supplies.

“The woman would have been offered the vaccine, it is not that she refused, it may have been that she simply did not take up the offer” Ms D’Ath said.

“Everyone in QHealth has been offered the vaccine, they can go to a vaccine centre at their own hospital or any community hub, they should identify themselves as a healthcare worker and they will be prioritised.”

The hospital worker was one of four new cases of coronavirus announced early yesterday.

Another case of community transmission was a miner who lives in the Ipswich area and works in the NT. He was deemed ‘low-risk’.

The main entrance of Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital.

The other cases were acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

It was later revealed that the teenage hospital worker’s schoolboy brother was also infected.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is expected to provide an update on cases at 10am.

Ms D’Ath said the state had about 14 to 15 days’ supply of the Pfizer vaccine on hand.

“We have to store enough for those who have already received their first jab in the last fortnight as they will be coming forward to get their second soon,” she said, adding that extra vaccine sites will be established and the capacity at testing clinics.

“We would ask people to be patient as they should expect long waiting times at some vaccine sites, and please be respectful of hospital staff”.

Ms D’Ath said she understood how difficult the snap lockdown would be and its impact on small businesses.

“It is so difficult, we do not make these decisions lightly, we have to do this so it doesn’t end up being 30 days” Ms D’Ath said.

The Health Minister also emphasised the importance of those who are unwell and have symptoms to isolate and get tested immediately.

“If you have typical cold symptoms, and especially if you lose your sense of smell, do not hesitate to get tested,” she said.

Originally published as Qld Covid update: Four new cases confirmed in Brisbane