Coronavirus: Two states on alert after infected case flees

Police are investigating suspected health order breaches in Queensland and Victoria by a couple who took the inland route to the Sunshine Coast.

Dubbo’s Homestead Motel Hotel was visited by the infected woman and her husband.

A woman with Covid-19 and her husband fled Melbourne’s lockdown and travelled across NSW to Queensland, triggering fears of community transmissions in the two states.

Police are investigating suspected health order breaches in Queensland and Victoria by the couple, who took the inland route on their way to stay with the woman’s parents in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.

Four major community events this weekend – including the Noosa Eat & Drink Festival and the Queensland Garden Expo at Nambour – are now under review by Queensland Health.

Queensland’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, said it was too early to say whether lockdowns would be imposed across parts of the state’s southeast.

“It is very early to even think about that (lockdown) but the best way to stop any need for a lockdown is that people get tested, come forward and we find any cases,” she said.

Dr Young said the 44-year-old woman “could well have been infectious while she was travelling through NSW” and she was not sure if the pair had been vaccinated yet.

“Any case of Covid is frustrating,” she said. “The community has had to put up with so much now for 18 months. It doesn’t matter the cause, any community case is going to be frustrating for a lot of people.”

Health authorities are now rushing to test residents on the Sunshine Coast and at Goondiwindi and Toowoomba to contain a possible Covid outbreak.

Contact tracers are now looking at the movements of the couple, with the husband testing negative to the virus. The pair – who are now both in hospital – had sustained contact with her parents and three other people while on the Sunshine Coast. All five are being tested.

The woman and her husband fled their home in Melbourne’s northeastern suburbs on June 1, three days into the city’s two-week lockdown.

Dr Young said the woman developed symptoms on June 3 but could have been infectious from June 1 and tests results would also determine what variant of the virus she had.

“I’m waiting for serology results to see just how long she’s had this infection,” Dr Young said.

The pair stopped in four towns in regional NSW – Gillenbah, Forbes, Dubbo and Moree – before arriving in Queensland on June 5. They entered the state through Goondiwindi and stopped in Toowoomba before ­arriving in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast on June 6.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, who heads Queensland’s border regime, said “it is too early to say” whether they breached border rules.

A fast food restaurant, petrol station and shopping centre have been added to a list of exposure sites released by health authorities on Wednesday afternoon.

In a statement, NSW Health said “the case drove from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, stopping at places in Gillenbah, Forbes, Dubbo and Moree and signed in to several ­venues using QR codes”.

A preliminary list of exposure sites has also been released by Queensland Health, which includes the Goondiwindi McDonalds, a Toowoomba Caltex, Sunny’s Cafe at Moffat Beach and Coffee Cat at Kings Beach.

Meanwhile, Queensland will lift its border restrictions for regional Victoria on Friday when Melbourne’s two-week lockdown is due to end. But Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said travel from Greater Melbourne would remain restricted.

Travellers from regional Victoria will be able to enter Queensland without an exemption from 1am on Friday.

The last unlinked case recorded in Victoria was on May 29, with the origins of another positive case from June 1 still under investigation.

Queensland’s chief health officer has ordered two snap lockdowns this year, the first in January and the second at Easter.