Qld records four new local Covid-19 cases as Portuguese Centre cluster grows

Queensland’s contact tracers have found a link between a number of the state’s Covid-19 cases, but one big question remains unanswered.

Queensland’s contact tracers have linked a number of Covid-19 cases to a Greek restaurant at a busy shopping centre, after four new locally acquired cases were recorded on Monday.

But, authorities still aren’t sure how a worker at the Brisbane Airport DFO contracted the virus, conceding she had a number of possible exposure points but it remains unclear from whom she contracted Covid-19.

As the state’s Alpha cluster rose to 23, chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said the Zeus Street Greek Kitchen at Westfield Chermside links three local Covid-19 cases together.

Members of the public line up for testing at the Mater Covid Testing Clinic in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“We know that three of our cases that we were having difficulty linking all attended at the same time the Zeus Street Greek Kitchen at Westfield Chermside,” Dr Young said.

“We know that the case at Aroona … the gentleman who went up to Eumundi and the Prince Charles Hospital worker all attended that restaurant.

“We are just working out all of the specifics, but we think that is probably the site of transmission (where) this has occurred.”

Dr Young said the DFO case, who also worked at the Brisbane Watchouse as a cleaner, had “a lot of common contacts” but authorities are not sure “the exact person that they acquired the infection from”.

“That is all good. That means this cluster of the Alpha variant is all coming together and we’re finding out where all the issues are,” she said.

Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said she had identified a ‘venue of concern’. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The DFO worker initially came forward to get tested without symptoms, because she had worked at the centre the day a flight attendant –who contracted Covid-19 while in hotel quarantine and was unknowingly in the Brisbane community while infectious –visited the centre.

The DFO case also has friends who attended the Portuguese restaurant.

Of the new cases confirmed on Monday, one is a woman, who has been staying in Tarragindi with family, and is a close contact of one of the cases previously linked to the Greek centre.

Her child has also tested positive.

Dr Young said the third case is a colleague of the man who travelled up to Eumundi before testing positive. This case lives in Sinnamon Park, and Queensland Health are now talking to him for additional contact tracing information. The fourth case is the partner of the man who travelled to Eumundi.