Delta bombshell and ballooning location alerts put Queensland in race against time

Contact tracers in Queensland are in a race against time today after a series of concerning developments in the state’s outbreak overnight.

In an overnight update that has seriously upped the stakes for Queensland, health officials confirmed that the unvaccinated woman at the centre of the state’s latest Covid-19 scare travelled around the state for ten days with the highly-infectious Delta variant.

Fears of infections from the single case — a 19-year-old hospital worker travelled to Townsville from Brisbane — have prompted authorities to place large parts of the state into a three-day lockdown.

Confirmation of the strain — which is the same variant that has sent Sydney into lockdown and infected millions around the world — has placed contact tracers in the Sunshine State in a race against time.

As many Queenslanders wake up to their first day in lockdown, authorities are desperately trying to hunt down everybody the case came into contact with on her trip.

The exposure sites list in the state ballooned overnight alongside the announcement — with new alerts for flights, supermarkets and restaurants across the state.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk puts her mask on at a press conference about COVID in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

The wide geographical spread of the exposure sites poses an additional challenge as the case from Brisbane travelled around the city before going on a family holiday to Townsville and Magnetic Island. Two of the woman’s family members and a close friend have also fallen ill.

Even before last night’s news that the mystery case who had travelled around Queensland had the Delta variant, the state’s Premier was fuming.

Ms Palaszczuk said she was “absolutely furious” about the situation.

She said the woman first developed symptoms last Monday, but did not come forward for testing for another week. She worked two shifts at the Prince Charles Hospital and holidayed in Townsville and Magnetic Island while infectious.

Ms Palaszczuk said she had no choice but to impose the lockdown because of the fast-moving situation.

“The risk is real and we need to act quickly,” the premier said yesterday. “We need to go hard and we need to go fast.

“This is absolutely essential and we want to make sure that we stop the virus in its tracks. This is really important that everyone does the right thing. I know Queenslanders will. These are tough decisions.”

The announcement means that southeast Queensland, Townsville City and Palm and Magnetic Island regions will go into a three-day lockdown from 6pm tonight until Friday.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the woman’s time in the community posed a “significant risk” although she did not know at the time if the woman had the highly-contagious Delta strain.

She urged every single person on Magnetic Island – about 2000 people – to urgently get tested regardless if they have symptoms.

The woman went to Sandgate Woolworths on Sunday and then the Bay Health Gym.

There is a three-day lockdown for much of the state as health authorities work to contain a growing cluster. Picture: Jono Searle/Getty Images

She worked at the Prince Charles Hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday before flying to Townsville on flight VA369 from Brisbane on Thursday.

She spent one hour at Brewery Cafe at the airport before going to Magnetic Island.

The woman travelled back from the island to Townsville on Sunday and went to the markets before flying on VA374 on Sunday to Brisbane.

One of the new cases revealed on Tuesday was linked to the mine cluster from the Northern Territory, while the other was described by the Premier as a brand-new community acquired case.

“I can’t be definitive about how they got it,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

She said she was concerned by the multiple sources of infections threatening the state — the mine cluster, five Virgin flights with an infected flight attendant on-board and the Portuguese restaurant outbreak.

“Then I have got this fourth case that may be linked to that case through the Portuguese restaurant cluster, or it may be linked to one of those overseas travellers that’s been admitted to the Prince Charles Hospital, or it could be another linkage that I have just got to work through,” the Premier said.

The 11 southeast Queensland local government areas affected by the stay-at-home orders are Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands, Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley and Somerset.

The four approved reasons to leave home during the lockdown include:

• To buy essentials such as groceries or medications
• Work or study if you can’t do either from home
• Exercise in your local area
• Healthcare or to provide help, care or support

“One is essential work that you cannot do from home or essential study that you cannot do from home,” chief health officer Jeannette Young said.

“You can travel wherever you would normally travel to do that essential critical work, essential critical study, so you can leave home for those reasons.

Dr Jeannette Young said the authorities were concerned about the prospect of the Delta strain in the community. Picture: NCA NewsWire/John Gass

“If you have responsibilities to provide care to someone who is vulnerable, you can leave your home to where that is.

“Then, of course, you can leave your home to buy essential supplies — that’s food and medications, so things that are essential and you can leave home for your own essential health care of course.”

Queensland has become the fourth jurisdiction to be plunged into lockdown following Western Australia, Northern Territory and NSW.

Access to the full list of exposure sites is available here.