Qld coronavirus: ‘Hens entertainer’ linked to COVID-19 outbreak
A tradie by day and ‘male entertainer’ by night who worked at a Byron Bay hens do has plunged the Gold Coast into high alert.
A Queensland tradie who travelled to Byron Bay to feature at a hens party as an entertainer returned to the Gold Coast and attended an aged care facility while infected with COVID-19.
The man is linked to the second cluster amid an escalating outbreak in the Sunshine State which added eight locally acquired cases on Tuesday, according to Queensland Health officials.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young revealed there are two separate clusters that are connected to two unlinked health officials.
The first cluster was linked to a doctor from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane from three weeks ago who is believed to have infected the Stafford and Strathpine men who emerged as cases last week.
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The second cluster, currently responsible for five infections, is linked to a nurse from the same hospital, who travelled to Byron Bay with her sister for a party where the tradie was also in attendance.
“One of the positive cases in that second cluster attended the hens party as an entertainer,” Dr Young told reporters on Tuesday morning.
This man allegedly became infected at the party before returning to the Gold Coast where he attended the TriCare Mermaid Beach Aged Care Residence as a contractor working on refurbishments.
The cluster has plunged the nursing home into high alert as efforts to track down possible cluster links continues.
“But every resident in that aged care facility has already been vaccinated, had their first dose,” Dr Young said.
“We’re working with the Commonwealth to respond to that aged care facility.
“The team down at the Gold Coast are organising to go to the facility today and vaccinate the staff of that facility.”
Dr Young tried to explain the clusters to reporters on Tuesday morning, but admitted even she was having trouble getting her head around it.
“The nurse worked at the PA Hospital on March 18 in the COVID ward. We now have the genome sequence result back … She has exactly the same genome to a gentleman who arrived and was treated in the PA Hospital and was tested on March 22,” chief health officer Jeanette Young said.
“She did do a shift on the night of March 23.
“My hypothesis … She has acquired the infection when at work … But I don’t know whether she got it directly from that patient, because she wasn’t working with COVID cases that night … or whether she’s got it from someone else in the hospital.
“That all has to be worked through.”
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