Expand Queensland coronavirus testing, disease expert warns

A Queensland disease expert is urging health authorities to expand their testing regime for coronavirus, as authorities insist they have the virus contained for the time being.

Queensland’s coronavirus response made international headlines on Thursday after Tom Hanks revealed he and his wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the virus and have been put in isolation in Gold Coast University Hospital.

Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks photographed in Sydney on the weekend.Credit: KHAPGG/Backgrid

The pair were among seven fresh cases announced by Queensland Health, which also included a 19-year-old man from Brisbane who had not travelled overseas, but instead had been in "close contact" with a 22-year-old UQ student who has previously tested positive.

Authorities on Thursday revealed that the 22-year-old had visited Friday’s Riverside in Brisbane’s CBD not once as previously thought, but multiple times from Friday, March 6, to Sunday, March 8.

Hanks and Wilson have had multiple conformed contacts with people in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney, with selfies posted on social media the photographic proof.

In addition to that, the 22-year-old man’s multiple visits to Friday’s as well as attending classes at UQ’s St Lucia Campus for at least two days while infectious has led to urgent contact tracing being carried out by health authorities.

Signage points to the clinic set up at the Gold Coast University Hospital as Queensland ramps up efforts to counter coronavirus.Credit: Stuart Layt

However health authorities insist the virus remains contained in Queensland, with all cases accounted for either as a primary source or through close contact with a primary source.

Queensland’s Chief Medical Officer Jeannette Young said earlier in the week that they had no evidence of community transmission of the virus in Queensland as there has been in New South Wales, and Queensland Health director-general John Wakefield reiterated that view on Thursday.

"Our efforts are to find, isolate and test every person we can as soon as we can," Dr Wakefield said.

"We know that if we do that we delay significantly any community transmission.

"So people are perfectly safe to go about their normal business."

Queensland health authorities have been testing anyone who has travelled overseas and subsequently felt unwellCredit: AAP

Griffith University infectious diseases expert Nigel McMillan said he had no reason not to believe health authorities’ statements on the lack of community transmission in Queensland.

However, Professor McMillan urged a crucial change to the testing regime for the virus, saying authorities need to start testing everyone who developed symptoms, not just people who had returned from countries with the virus.

Professor Nigel McMillan (right) with Dr Luqman Jubair.Credit: Griffith University

The current advice is for anyone who has been overseas in the last 14 days and who feels unwell to get tested, but Professor McMillan said that meant potential cases could be slipping through the net.

"They should test everyone who thinks they might have it, irregardless of whether they’ve been overseas," he said.

"You don’t know what you don’t know."

Professor McMillan said with private pathology labs coming online to complement the public labs already in use there was enough capacity to handle all the tests in a timely manner.

He said South Korea and Italy provided two examples of how to deal with the virus in different ways with different results.

Italy went from 79 cases to more than 2000 in seven days, and has seen a 6.3 per cent fatality rate from the virus, with the entire country now on lockdown.

South Korea, meanwhile, has not locked down any cities and had held their cases to about 7000 total, with a fatality rate of just 0.7 per cent.

"Essentially, you want to be a Korea, not an Italy," Professor McMillan said.

Health Minister Steven Miles said the efforts by Queensland health authorities had been world-class, and had ensured no immediate spread of the virus.

"We’ve been preparing for this as though it were a pandemic basically since day one," Dr Miles said.

"All the people diagnosed with the disease are receiving fantastic care at hospitals throughout Queensland."

Professor McMillan agreed, saying Queensland’s health system was world-class, and the response had been excellent so far, but still urged authorities to expand the testing.

"If we don’t get on top of it things can get out of hand really quickly," he said.