COVID-19 found in sewerage at Maroochydore, Wynnum and Sandgate

Queenslanders have been put on alert after sewerage testing uncovered positive coronavirus results in three different areas.

Queensland’s chief health officer has raised concerns about undetected coronavirus cases in the community after testing at three wastewater plants returned positive results.

Sewerage testing at Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast, and Wynnum and Sandgate wastewater plants in greater Brisbane came after all three had previously returned negative results.

The news of the coronavirus fragments in sewerage come as Queensland recorded no new cases overnight and has just four that are across the state.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young has raised concerns about the sewerage testing results. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Dr Jeanette Young said on Saturday there was no need for alarm although there was every chance someone may have coronavirus and not even realise it.

The positive tests could also be the result of people having recovered from COVID-19 but are still shedding virus fragments that is turning up sewage.

“We now have three positives down here in the southeast corner,” Ms Young said.

“They are on the back of four weeks of negative tests in those three locations. So there is something happening.

“It could be someone who‘s recently had the infection, and then has gone to those places, so they’re not infectious … but they’re still shedding virus.

“It could of course be a person that we’ve not picked up that is out there in the community.”

Queensland's chief health officer has asked people showing any signs of coronavirus to be tested. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Ms Young said it was extensive sewerage testing in Victoria and NSW that resulted in more positive coronavirus cases being uncovered.

She said that could very much be the same scenario in Queensland following the latest sewerage outcomes.

“We have most recently seen, in both Victoria and New South Wales, that when they‘ve had positive results in this sewerage, they’ve gone out then and done more testing, and they have found cases,” she said.

“That could be happening here in Queensland.

“So, now that it’s now over a month since we’ve had an infectious case in the community, we could have an infectious case again, any day.

She said the state had the resources to manage any outbreak so long as they new cases were detected immediately.

“As long as we find those cases as soon as we can. That is absolutely critical,” she said.

Ms Young also but ruled out a Queensland woman, who tested positive to coronavirus after arriving in Victoria recently, of having contracted the illness in Sunshine State.

The Townsville woman, aged in her 30s, had flown to Cairns and Brisbane, then to Victoria on October 7.

“We managed to test some blood that was taken from that person just before they left Queensland, and that test was negative for COVID-19 neurology,” Ms Young said.

“It just suggests that she didn’t have the infection while she was in Queensland. ”