Cafe patron tests positive to COVID-19 in Toowoomba

24 HOURS after the NT declared the Queensland city a hotspot, reports are emerging that a person in Toowoomba has tested positive for COVID-19.

UPDATED: A PATRON of a popular coffee spot in Toowoomba has tested positive for coronavirus, according to the shopping centre’s management.

The Ridge shopping centre in Kearney Springs, in a social media post on Tuesday, stated it had received confirmed from Queensland Health that a customer of its Jamaica Blue Coffee outlet had tested positive for coronavirus.

The shock announcement seemingly vindicates the Northern Territory’s chief health officer Dr Hugh Heggie, who raised eyebrows on Monday afternoon by declaring Toowoomba a hotspot along with Greater Brisbane.

Reports that a patron who visited the Jamaica Blue Coffee outlet on Friday had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday only became public after a social media post over 24 hours after the NT made the declaration.

EARLIER:

QUESTIONS are swirling as to why the Northern Territory declared Toowoomba a hotspot when it is not considered a COVID danger zone.

Queensland’s CHO Dr Jeanette Young, revealing Queensland had recorded eight new locally acquired coronavirus cases across two distinct clusters, said the NT was “just a bit concerned” because “they had some people who had been in Toowoomba”.

NT’s Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison revealed on Monday that Toowoomba would be considered a hot spot because of a supposed “major exposure” event at a pub in the regional city on Friday.

But Dr Young contradicted this, saying there had been a group of people from Toowoomba who had gone to a pub that was an exposure site in Brisbane before heading back to the regional city.

“We‘ve not had any positive cases amongst that group, but they were at one of the venues of concern. So that’s why the Chief Health Officer in the Northern Territory gave that advice to his Government,” she said.

Ironically, Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s in-laws from Toowoomba are staying with him in Darwin.

The hotspot declaration meant Mr Gunner is now isolating at home.

The NT News understands declaring Toowoomba a hotspot may have been a case of health experts ascertaining wrong information from a national meeting on Monday morning.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner. Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

Dr Young said her NT counterpart Dr Hugh Heggie was being, rightfully, “ultra cautious” due to the Territory’s highly vulnerable population.

“It doesn’t actually mean that I’m particularly concerned about Toowoomba, but it’s an area we’re looking at, as we are the entire state,” she said.

The NT News understands that, as of Tuesday morning, Mr Gunner is still yet to receive the results of his COVID-19 test.

Apart from Western Australia, which has locked out all of Queensland, the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction to declare Toowoomba a hot spot.