NSW on high alert after Melbourne woman drives to Queensland, tests positive

A Woolies, cafes, cinemas and a hotel have joined a long list of exposure sites in NSW visited by a Melbourne couple who fled lockdown.

A Melbourne woman who left lockdown and tested positive to Covid-19 in Queensland made several stops along the way in regional NSW.

Authorities in Queensland broke the news on Wednesday afternoon that a 44-year-old woman and her partner drove from a suburb on the outskirts on Melbourne all the way to the Sunshine Coast.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the woman left Melbourne on June 1 and entered Queensland on June 5, passing through Goondiwindi and Toowoomba. She had been staying with family at Caloundra when she tested positive.

She has been moved to Sunshine Coast University Hospital. Her partner tested negative but is being kept at the same hospital for observation given the amount of time he spent next to her in the pair’s vehicle.

A Melbourne couple are at Sunshine Coast University Hospital after a woman tested positive to Covid-19 having left Melbourne during lockdown.

Authorities in Queensland identified six close contacts and are working to establish exactly where the pair stopped on their drive from Melbourne to Queensland.

A list of exposure sites have already been produced by Queensland Health. They include a Goondiwindi McDonalds from 7.35-7.50am and a Toowoomba Caltex from 11am to 11.15am on June 5, Sunny’s cafe at Moffat Beach from 2.45-3pm and Coffee Cat at Kings Beach from 3.30-4pm on June 6, and Stockland Shopping Centre and a Bunnings Warehouse in Caloundra from 12.10-12.45pm on June 7.

The pair also spent several days in regional NSW. NSW Health issued an alert on Wednesday afternoon listing exposure sites at Gillenbah, Forbes, Dubbo and Moree.

The pair’s first stop in NSW was at Caltex Narrandera on June 1. They stopped at the Vandenberg Hotel in Forbes later that day and the Brew Coffee Bar, also in Forbes, on June 2.

They visitied the Church Street Cafe, Reading Cinemas, the Homestead Hotel in Dubbo and a Shell petrol station on June 2 and made a second visit to the Homestead Hotel on June 3.

PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT pic.twitter.com/0KrDnLqeMh

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 9, 2021

⚠️PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT – NEW VENUES⚠️

NSW Health was advised by Queensland Health that two further venues of concern in NSW have been identified as part of ongoing investigations into a #COVID19 case reported earlier today. pic.twitter.com/O4dVEFIjqy

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 9, 2021

In Moree, the couple stopped at a Woolworths on June 3 and at Gwydir Carpark Motel & Thermal Pools on June 3, June 4 and June 5 and went to Cafe Omego in Moree on June 4 and June 5.

“NSW Health has been advised by Queensland Health that a confirmed case of Covid-19 travelled through regional NSW while potentially infectious from 1 June to 5 June,” authorities said in a media release.

“The case drove from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, stopping at places in Gillenbah, Forbes, Dubbo and Moree and signed in to several venues using QR codes.”

NSW say anyone who attended exposure sites at the times listed must immediately get tested and isolate “until you receive further information from NSW Health”.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski was asked at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon whether the pair “lied on her declaration form”.

The Homestead Hotel in Dubbo is now an exposure site.

He said they were not in a position to speculate and the priority was tracking their movements and informing the public.

Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said the woman developed symptoms on June 3.

“The community has had to put up with so much now for 18 months and to do this again, it doesn‘t matter the cause, any community case of COVID is going to be frustrating for a lot of people,” she said.

Queensland Health said it would send “a contact tracing alert for parts of Sunshine Coast, Goondiwindi and Toowoomba regions”.

Victorian authorities announced on Wednesday that a 14-day lockdown impacting metropolitan Melbourne’s will end on Thursday at midnight.

Queensland continues to treat Melbourne as a hot spot. Anybody visiting Queensland from Melbourne is required to enter hotel quarantine.