Qld coronavirus outbreak: Infected women travelled on Virgin Australia flights

The hunt is on to contact trace anyone who travelled on board two Virgin Australia flights, as Queensland records two new cases of COVID-19.

Queensland Health authorities are “furious” and on the hunt for passengers who may have been in contact with two teenagers who travelled on board a Virgin Australia flight from Melbourne to Brisband via Sydney.

Speaking to media on Wednesday, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said he was “disappointed” to report that two new cases of COVID-19 had been recorded overnight from two 19-year-old women who had returned on July 21 from Victoria.

Mr Miles said the teenagers had travelled into the state and not gone into mandatory quarantine, suggesting that the women didn’t accurately advise where they had been on their Queensland border entry passes.

“They both travelled together recently, including returning to Brisbane from Melbourne on the July 21 via Sydney,” Mr Miles said.

“They travelled on flights VA863 and VA977. These young women have gone about their business within the communities that they live in and so there will be a large amount of contact tracing to be done.

“The impacts of breaking COVID rules and being dishonest and exposing people to be virus can be massive.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she is “furious” that the teenagers were allowed into the state.

“These two people have gone to Victoria and have come back and have given authorities misleading information,” she told media on Wednesday.

“There will be a thorough police investigation.”

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The two teenagers travelled on two Virgin Australia flights. Picture: Brendan Radke

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Queensland’s chief medical officer Dr Jeannette Young said actions of the two young women returning from Melbourne was “disappointing” and that they will cause a lot of “inconvenience” for fellow Queenslanders.

“I do apologise to those people for what is now going to have to occur,” she said.

“There are going to be shopping centres, a school and restaurants close now for at least 48 hours while we arrange a deep clean of those facilities and contact trace people who attended. “We need to act really, really fast. These two young women have been out in the community for eight days while unwell.”

Queensland has a ban on anyone from Victoria entering Queensland, and any resident of the Sunshine State must enter 14 days of mandatory self-paid quarantine if they travel home from Melbourne. Anyone entering the state of Queensland needs to fill out a border declaration form.

In a statement provided to news.com.au, a spokesperson for Virgin Australia said they were assisting health authorities with passenger contact tracing.

“We have been advised that two passengers who travelled with us on VA863 and VA977 on July 21 have tested positive for COVID-19,” the statement read.

“Contact information obtained as part of our pre-departure health screening for flights VA863 and VA977 has been provided to the relevant state health authorities.

“It’s important to note that various border restrictions are also currently in place across Australia and we are asking customers to ensure they do the right thing in terms of meeting state and territory entry requirements prior to travel.

“The safety of our customers and crew is always our number one priority and we’ve implemented a wide-range of health and wellbeing measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said she is ‘disappointed’ the teenagers didn’t go into quarantine. Picture: Attila Csaszar

Queensland Police said an investigation into how the women avoided hotel quarantine will be conducted.

“There is an investigation that is ongoing into the circumstances of these two young women coming back from Victoria into Queensland, including the way that they got through the border and the fact that they were in the community for eight days when they should have been quarantined,” Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said.

“The initial investigation is indicating that there were incorrect details on their declaration passes and we are still trying to examine all of those facts and obtain the border declaration passes.”