‘Concerned’: Qld races to find people who didn’t check in at nail salon exposure site

Queensland’s top doctor has warned of a big risk as they race to track down contacts of an infected truckie who was out in the community for days.

Many visitors to a key Queensland exposure site did not use the check-in app and the race is on to find people potentially exposed to an infected truck driver, the state’s chief health officer said.

The truckie visited the Stylish Nails salon at Beenleigh marketplace while infectious on Monday between 10.30am and 11.45am, but of eight people at the salon only one had checked in, Jeanette Young said on Saturday.

“Sadly what we have seen is that people were not checking in,” she said.

“There was one person during that time checked in with the check in app at the nail salon.

“But we know there was at least eight customers there in addition to this gentleman and the child.”

She said she was “very, very concerned” about potential transmission from the truck driver.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young asked Queenslanders who had visited a key exposure site to get tested. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Dr Young, who said the salon had been incredibly helpful, pleaded with Queenslanders to use the check-in app.

She expressed doubts that everyone at Beenleigh marketplace, which is an exposure site at the same day and time as the nail salon, had checked in as they were supposed to.

“Six hundred people checked into the Beenleigh marketplace,” she said.

“They have 900 car spots there, and they have over 30 shops.

“So I‘m concerned that not everyone checked in to that shopping centre.

“Please, anyone who is there last Monday morning, I need you to come forward and get a test and isolate until you get a negative result.”

Queensland recorded one new case of Covid-19 on Saturday, a four-year-old girl already reported on Friday.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath gave a Covid-19 update on Saturday. NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

She is a close contact but not the daughter of the truckie who tested positive to Covid-19 on Thursday on the Gold Coast after he returned from NSW.

The four-year-old’s positive result led to attendees at a childcare centre in Mt Warren Park, Logan, being forced into isolation.

The child attended the Boulevard Early Learning Centre on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The positive truckie, from Windaroo in Logan, was potentially infectious in the community for up to five days from August 28 to September 1.

Restrictions for aged care facilities, disability services and hospitals in the Logan local government area are in place after the worrying new cases.

In early August, southeast Queensland suppressed a Delta variant cluster that broke out at a number of schools and triggered a lockdown in 11 local government areas in the region.

More to come.

Originally published as ‘Concerned’: Qld races to find people who didn’t check in at nail salon exposure site