Gold Coast suburbs on alert after truck driver tests positive in NSW

Suburbs on Queensland’s Gold Coast have been put on alert after a truck driver tested positive to Covid in NSW.

Gold Coast residents are on alert after health authorities revealed the suburbs visited by a truckie who later tested positive to Covid-19 in NSW.

The warning comes after the Queensland government announced the mask mandate would be extended to the Gold Coast after one new locally-acquired case was recorded overnight.

The new case, a man in his 50s, was a close contact of a case at an aviation training facility.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young speaks during a press conference at Parliament House to provide a Covid-19 update. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Another case, who lives in the Gold Coast suburb of Gaven, tested positive in NSW.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said the man was a truck driver who “regularly moved” between the Gold Coast and Sydney and “stopped along the way at a lot of communities”.

He had been infectious in the community between September 25-27.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath (left) and Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young provide a Covid-19 update. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

She said the suburbs of Mermaid Waters, Merrimac, Palm Beach, Nerang, Surfers Paradise, Miami Beach and Currumbin had been visited by the man while he was infectious.

“Anyone in the Gold Coast today – absolutely anyone with the most slightest of symptoms – please come and get tested,” Dr Young said.

Health workers perform duties at a pop up Covid-19 testing clinic. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“Because we now have two people who live in the Gold Coast who've been out in the Gold Coast while infectious.”

Exposure sites are expected to be listed by contact tracers later today.

Dr Young said both new cases had the Delta variant but neither of them had links with any case in Queensland.

“They’ve clustered with cases in NSW and, indeed, with the United States,” she said.

“That fits with that aviation worker who works in that facility that we know international pilots use.”