Queensland records six new community Covid cases, including Omicron variant, as passengers released from hotel quarantine

Queensland has recorded six new community Covid cases, including two possible cases of the Omicron variant, while most passengers on two Covid-exposed flights have been released from hotel quarantine. It comes as more exposure sites were revealed on Wednesday afternoon.

Queensland has recorded six new community Covid cases, including two possible cases of Omicron linked to the Newcastle nightclub superspreader event.

Five of the six cases were infectious in the community, including the suspected Omicron cases, and all were fully vaccinated

The cases are located in Goondiwindi, the Wide Bay area, Townsville, the Gold Coast and Brisbane South.

More exposures sites have been listed by Queensland Health on Wednesday afternoon.

Anyone who visited The Espresso Hut in Eight Mile Plains from 6.35am to 7.35am on Sunday, December 12, is now considered a close contact and will have to get tested and quarantine for 14 days regardless of if the test is negative.

A flight to the Gold Coast was on Tuesday afternoon listed as a Covid-19 exposure site, with multiple passengers ordered to quarantine.

Flight JQ430 from Melbourne to Gold Coast on Tuesday, Dec 14 was part of a number of new exposure sites announced on the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Townsville.

All passengers in rows 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 on the 5-5.30pm flight are close contacts.

All other passengers are considered casual contacts.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath also earlier confirmed a traveller who arrived in Queensland from the UK had tested positive for the Omicron variant.

One of the community cases was a person who attended the Argyle Hotel – which is the epicentre of the Newcastle superspreader event – and is being treated as an Omicron case.

Another man who flew from Newcastle to Brisbane and on to Townsville also attended another Newcastle exposure site and is also being treated as Omicron.

Ms D’Ath said the Queensland government had overturned a decision to force dozens of passengers on those flights exposed to the Newcastle case to quarantine for Christmas.

Dozens of passengers were deemed close contacts and ordered into two-weeks quarantine.

Ms D’Ath said the public health unit had acted cautiously, but said the chief health officer had overturned the decision.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Adam Head

“Just as we did with Delta, when there is the new variant of Omicron on-board, our Public Health Unit acted cautiously while they and the chief health officer analysed overnight what should be the approach,” Ms D’Ath said.

“We can apply the normal rules for close contacts which is the two rows in front and behind and across.”

Ms D’Ath said there was no advice from the chief health officer to lock out Newcastle or anywhere else in New South Wales after a recent Omicron outbreak.

She said exposure sites may initially be deemed close contact and then the level of risk may see the case modified. Ms D’Ath said this was the first time there had been a positive Omicron case on a flight.

“Omicron is so new that we needed to assess and Delta we did the same thing … they might have passed each other on the way to the bathroom,” she said.

“I welcome that advice that we believe we can keep the risk level exactly the same as we have with Delta.”

People sitting around the infected passenger will be returned to hotel quarantine, but the remainder of the passengers will be deemed casual contacts and need to get tested, isolate until a negative result and then monitor for symptoms.

Ms D’Ath said the decision to reclassify close contacts to casual contacts on two recent flights was made by the chief health officer.

“We just wanted to assess the risk,” she said.

“We had two options – we could have waited to see what the genomic sequencing showed … but my request this morning, even if it is Omicron, what should the rules be going forward.”

She said the initial decision to deem the two planeloads of passengers are close contacts would not undermine future travellers’ confidence.

Ms D’Ath said 1300 cases in New South Wales and news from the UK was concerning.

“We are seeing a surge,” she said.

“We can expect omicron may become the dominant variant.”

However, she said it would not affect the state’s reopening.

“Does that change anything, no,” she said.

The NSW Health Minister made a shock claim, saying new modelling shows the state could have 25,000 daily Covid cases by the end of January, but that was quickly derided by Professor Robert Booy from the Immunisation Coalition as “a gross exaggeration”.

He said the range of outcomes that modelling might predict could be “anywhere between 2500 and 25,000 cases”.

“I would be most surprised by 25,000 cases in a single day – I think that’s a gross exaggeration,” he said.

“This is reflective of modelling not being accurate rather than the virus being a problem.”

“If the most likely outcome is 25,000 cases a day, which the modelling suggests for New South Wales or any other state, I think it’s an exaggeration,” he said.

Chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard. Picture: Richard Walker

Prof Booy said while Queensland will also see a “sharp rise” in cases, the concern is not the number of cases, “the concern is how many end up in hospital and how many get deadly sick – and that’s what we should be concentrating on”.

“Alarmist figures aren’t helpful – we need to concentrate on what we can deal with and whether the health system will manage the number of hospitalisations which will surely increase,” he said.

Chief health officer John Gerrard said the situation facing Queensland was “exactly what we expected”.

“These numbers will increase in coming days or weeks,” he said.

Dr Gerrard said on Tuesday authorities made the decision “that we would immediately quarantine all patients on the flight” until they could assess the variant.

“We took an extremely cautious approach,” he said.

However, he said they now believed it “will be safe” to release passengers who did not sit around the infectious people.

Dr Gerrard repeated that authorities were still waiting for more information around Omicron and what impact it would have.

“We understand that it is clearly very transmissible. more transmissible than previous variants,” he said.

“The evidence from the laboratory particularly suggests that with two doses … you get new neutralising antibodies which correlates with a good immune response and that a third dose of vaccine gives you a very major boost.

“What we need to see in reality is real human data, that takes longer of course.

“We’re not seeing huge numbers of admissions or deaths from the Omicron strain in the UK or South Africa yet … but those are lagging indicators.”

Dr Gerrard said it was not a surprise that some vaccinated patients had contracted Omicron, but they were only displaying had mild symptoms.

He said completely locking down and eliminating risk was “no longer possible” with Omicron expected to spread throughout coming months.

Around 25,000 vehicles have been checked by police at Queensland’s road borders with 5,000 people checked at airports.

Earlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged the Queensland government to ensure passengers of two flights forced into two weeks quarantine are able to be with their families for Christmas.

Mr Morrison said getting the passengers out of quarantine should be a “high priority” and questioned the need for them to isolate for 14 days.

“It’s not Christmas yet, not for almost two weeks, so PCR testing and looking at other ways to ensure people can join with their families before Christmas I hope would be a very high priority for them (Queensland government),” he said.

“I mean, there’s nothing magical about 14 days.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Damian Shaw

Mr Morrison said state governments need to be careful dealing with the Omicron variant, but urged Queensland to work with the passengers to get them home for Christmas.

“I’m sure those caught up in that would be happy to get tested every single day, whether it’s five days or seven days … but that’s a matter for the Queensland government, they’re the one who have made this decision,” he said.

Originally published as Queensland records six new community Covid cases, including Omicron variant, as passengers released from hotel quarantine