Brisbane avoids lockdown as party pooper tale debunked

Brisbane looks to have avoided a lockdown after health authorities say that a young man who tested positive for COVID-19 did not hold a party while he was supposed to be isolating.

Passengers from Brisbane undergo screening in Sydney. Pcture:Justin Lloyd

Brisbane looks to have avoided a lockdown ahead of Easter after health authorities reversed their official advice that a young man who tested positive for COVID-19 had held a party while he was supposed to be isolating.

State Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young was hopeful on Sunday that Greater Brisbane would avoid another lockdown after just one historical case of COVID-19 was detected in the community but refused to rule out the possibility ahead of the long weekend. “Of course I can’t (rule it out), this is a virus. It just spreads. We don’t always know how,” Dr Young said.

“I cannot rule out anything but I’m very hopeful that if we do our bit, which is come forward and get tested when you are sick, as our first case did (in) this recent cluster … he came forward while I’m sure he was thinking this can’t possibly be COVID, he came forward and tested positive.”

“So we just need people to not make any assumptions.”

Other states reacted swiftly to Queensland’s latest cluster, with travellers to Western Australia, Victoria and the ACT required to get tested and isolate until cleared.

The outbreak was identified on Friday when a 26-year-old landscaper from Stafford, in Brisbane’s northern suburbs, tested positive to the highly contagious UK-strain of COVID-19 after he had been infectious in the community for a week.

His friend, a 26-year-old from Strathpine, tested positive on Saturday. Concern of further spread of the virus was heightened on Saturday night when Queensland Health issued a statement saying the man had held a party of 25 people at his home after he had been tested instead of isolating.

The department said the party attendees had been put into ­quarantine.

Queensland police debunked that on Sunday, saying only five people had been at the man’s home, four of whom lived there.

All are in hotel quarantine.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said reports it had been a party were “inflammatory… There’s no evidence of any offences, but we’re still considering it.”

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath refused to apologise to the man, despite conceding it was possible health officials “misunderstood” the man’s timeline of events.

“This is the information that was received by this gentleman himself when he was first picked up by the health officials,” Ms D’Ath said.

“Now whether health officials misunderstood what he said — I was not there, I didn’t hear the conversation.”

The new cases have affected the travel plans of many who had hoped to get away over the upcoming long weekend, with most states implementing some form of border restrictions.

NSW health authorities have dedicated contact tracing efforts to find more than 20,000 people who recently entered from Brisbane on flights between March 20 and 26, identifying nine close contacts by Sunday evening.

Both NSW and the ACT have introduced online declaration forms for those entering from Greater Brisbane.

Travellers from Queensland into Victoria and WA need to get tested for COVID-19 within 48 to 72 hours of arriving and self-­quarantine for 14 days or until they get a negative result.

Tasmania has barred anyone who has attended a venue identified by Queensland Health from entering the state unless they are an approved essential traveller.

No changes have been made to South Australian or Northern Territory advice.

In Melbourne, the Brisbane Lions AFL team abandoned plans to return home just hours before their scheduled departure, after playing Geelong on Friday.

Queensland recorded one new case of locally acquired COVID-19 overnight, the brother of the Stafford landscaper.

It is a historical case and he is no longer infectious.