Qld coronavirus: Latest information on COVID-19 in Queensland
Queensland’s top doctor says there has been a concerning outbreak of coronavirus - involving 15 people connected to Queensland corrections facilities - but the cases do not mark a ‘second wave’. It comes as restrictions on gatherings have been extended to the Gold Coast and the state’s annual Schoolies festival has effectively been cancelled.
QLD News
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There have been three new cases of coronavirus in Queensland in the past 24 hours, all of them tied to a Queensland Corrections training facility.
Two of the cases are from Pimpama on the Gold Coast, another one is from Forest Lake.
The first case relating to the facility - a 60-year-old training officer - was announced on Thursday.
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Two of the new cases - who carpool to work together - were in the dining room at the facility when it’s thought they came into contact with the original case. The third new case attended a training day.
There are 15 cases now related to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and the corrections training academy.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said they were still considered two separate clusters but she expected they would be linked.
She said because two of the new cases lived on the Gold Coast, the restrictions that were put in place for the greater Brisbane area last weekend will be extended south.
“The reason being that all of these cases we have seen related to the corrections training centre have been in younger people who’ve had ... very mild symptoms, extremely mild symptoms and I’m not quite sure of how it’s spread within that centre, who’s the primary case because of the mild nature of symptoms,” she said.
From 8am tomorrow, only 10 people will be allowed inside and outside for gatherings on the Gold Coast.
Also relating to the Gold Coast, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Schoolies has been deemed a high-risk event and will not be going ahead as it usually would.
Ms Palaszczuk said it was a tough year for everyone and that hopefully there could be a “double celebration” next year.
“It is about the health of everyone,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said there would be nothing wrong with small groups of young people booking accommodation at places close to where they live, but the official event of Schoolies was cancelled.
However, she urged people booking after-school celebrations to space them out.
She said there would be limits on how many people would be allowed in units, and there would be no big parties and mass gatherings.
Limits will be placed on gatherings in streets, beaches and apartments for when Schoolies is usually held.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate conceded he should have ‘jumped up and down earlier’ to get this year’s Schoolies cancelled.
Councillor Tate on Friday told reporters he backed the Premier’s call to cancel the Schoolies festival - officially at least, due to the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, he said it should have been called off much sooner and he regretted not actively calling for Schoolies to be cancelled earlier.
“I think I should have jumped up and down a lot earlier,” he said.
He also called on hotel operators to give refunds to any year 12 students who wished to cancel accommodation bookings now that the annual rite-of-passage had been cancelled.
“I think it’s the right thing to do morally,” he said.
“They (operators) can say all they like that these deposits are non-refundable but I think in this case it’s the right call..to handle yourself with a moral attitude.”
Dr Young said contact tracers were still doing their work in relation to the latest cases and it wasn’t known how the cluster had been sparked.
“I think that the two new cases got it from someone else, I don’t think they gave it to each other ... there’s still a lot of work to do,” she said.
But she said it looked like the cluster was confined to people who had attended the centre.
“It is community transmission and they have been out in the community so there is a real risk they’ve spread it in the Gold Coast,” Dr Young said.
She said she did not consider these cases to mark a “second wave” for Queensland.
“But this is concerning, it is an outbreak,” she said.
On Schoolies, Dr Young said she felt for Year 12 students, conceding it was a very important year for them.
She said this group was one of the most resilient and innovative and that they would find out ways to celebrate.
“There will still be celebrations ... there should be,” she said.
It was also revealed people will no longer be able to travel via Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne’s north before landing in Queensland.
Travellers were previously allowed to transit through the airport, if they did not leave the facility, however Dr Young today said this was no longer allowed.
The three new cases come after two new cases of the virus were announced yesterday, one of them a training officer for the state’s prisons system, who had worked at a facility at Wacol.
It resulted in prisons in the southeast and as far north as Rockhampton being placed into lockdown, with the movement of inmates severely restricted.
The source of the prison trainer’s infection is being investigated, but it may be tied to a cluster surrounding the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre at Wacol.
Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said there were 20 active cases.
He said the high number of tests being undertaken means the turnaround time for results is now just over 40 hours.
Dr Young urged people to get tested, urging them not to “soldier on”.
She said she knew Queenslanders were hardworkers and wanted to go to work to support their mates, but this time staying home was the best way to help colleagues.
Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Martin said testing had been expanded at the training academy.
Originally published as Qld coronavirus: Latest information on COVID-19 in Queensland