Potential coronavirus health breach reported at Brisbane Airport

A major alert has been issued after a potential virus breach at Brisbane Airport involving passengers who’d flown in from a high-risk country.

Authorities have sent out an urgent health alert following a major COVID-19 breach at Brisbane Airport.

An investigation has been launched after two passengers on a red flight from Papua New Guinea were let into a green zone of the airport.

The pair dined at the airport’s Hudson Cafe for about an hour and half, before using the toilets and visiting a second retail outlet.

An initial review of CCTV indicates that the red zone passengers were allowed into the green zone at 9:55am, spending just under two hours there before they were found by Brisbane Airport staff and returned to the red zone.

In a statement Brisbane Airport said it was working with authorities to investigate the circumstances of the breach.

BAC confirms there was a breach of the ‘green zone’ at the Brisbane Airport International Terminal today. This was due to human error, for which we unreservedly apologise. We are working with all relevant authorities to investigate the circumstances. https://t.co/pFFhg2t0NG

— Brisbane Airport ✈️ (@BrisbaneAirport) April 29, 2021

“BAC is conducting a thorough investigation and unreservedly apologises for this human error,” the statement read.

“Thorough cleaning of all areas mentioned above has since been conducted, and we can confirm all workers and passengers within the green area were wearing PPE.”

Three ‘green’ flights departed within this two-hour period to New Zealand, with approximately 390 passengers on these services.

At this stage, it is believed only a handful of passengers on these New Zealand flights were in the vicinity of the two ‘red’ passengers at any time.

PNG has battled a surging COVID-19 outbreak over the past month, as health authorities grapple with a fragile health system and slow and limited testing.

The country reported a high of 368 cases on April 22, with infections slowly dropping to 80 cases on April 28.

The pair, who travelled from Port Moresby, returned negative results before leaving from their home country, but a second test result from swabs taken on Thursday has returned a weak positive for one of the tests.

There’s been a potential health breach at Brisbane Airport, with New Zealand’s health ministry issuing an alert. Picture: Che Chorley

Queensland Health is leading the health response to the incident and working with the New Zealand Ministry of Health.

The three flights affected are Air New Zealand NZ202 from Brisbane to Christchurch, Air New Zealand NZ146 from Brisbane to Auckland, and Qantas QF135 from Brisbane to Christchurch.

QLD Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the two passengers posed a low risk to others.

“While at the airport, they wore masks and socially distanced and neither has reported symptoms,” Dr Young said.

“They were in the wrong zone through no fault of their own and we appreciate their patience and cooperation while we rule them out as cases.

“We’re also grateful for the prompt action by Brisbane airport staff once the mistake was identified.”

Queensland Health will release the results of the confirmatory testing once it is available.

Meanwhile the New Zealand Ministry of Health urged affected passengers to monitor their health for the next 14 days.

“Each plane has been met by officials who provided information to passengers alerting them to the potential breach and providing advice about monitoring their health for the next two weeks and contacting Healthline and getting tested if symptoms develop,” the Ministry said in a statement.