Nathan Turner, ‘the life of the party’, is now nation’s youngest coronavirus death

Tests on Nathan Turner’s contacts have returned negative results, while tests on Australia’s youngest victim show contradictory results.

Nathan Turner from Blackwater, Queensland, has become Australia's youngest person to die from COVID-19. He was just 30 years old.

Hundreds of people in the central Queensland mining town of Blackwater will be tested for COVID-19 on Thursday following the death of 30-year-old Nathan Turner, Australia’s youngest victim­ of the coronavirus.

The coalminer, who had been suffering seizures and was on worker’s compensation since Novembe­r, was found unconscious on Tuesday and tests conducted­ after his death found he was carrying the virus.

Mr Turner had been showing symptoms of the virus for three weeks prior to his death, but was not tested. His fiancee, who works in the local bakery and is now sick, has tested negative.

It emerged on Wednesday night that there is some uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 tests on Mr Turner. A test conducted about 9pm on Tuesday — several hours after his death — produced a positive reading for the virus, but a test three hours later came back negative.

“The first test was conducted closer to his death and is more reliable and while the second test was negative, it was contaminated with blood and is treated as being technically invalid,’’ a government source told The Australian. “We do not know if he died because of the virus but Queensland Health believes he died with the virus.’’

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the amount of blood in the second, negative test impacted its effectiveness and said it was likely Mr Turner was COVID-19 positive.

“There was a test done on a gene excerpt, which is a very sensitive test, and it came back positive. So I believe it was a positive. We’ll be doing other tests, of course, under the Coroner’s direction to determine if we can get other information.”

Queensland Health is investig­ating how Mr Turner was infected­, with no prior cases of COVID-19 in the Blackwater region­, where he had been since February.

On Wednesday, authorities reinterviewed­ a nurse — who contracted COVID-19 earlier this month and continued working at a Rockhampton aged-care facility while feeling unwell — as a possible source of the infection.

The nurse, who has not been identified, travelled the 167km from Rockhampton to Blackwater on May 10, four days before she was diagnosed with the virus.

After her initial diagnosis, she told authorities of her visit to the mining town, with the revelation on Wednesday prompting community and state opposition questions as to why residents weren’t told and mass testing conducted.

Sources told The Australian that the nurse, who had shown symptoms from May 5, had said in an interview with Queensland Health workers that she had had no contact with anyone in the community while in Blackwater.

“She said she had driven to Blackwater to watch the sunrise and hadn’t gotten out of her car or had any contact with anyone,” a source said. “It’s a strange place to go to watch the sunrise.’’

In a statement, Queensland Health defended its actions and said it now appeared Mr Turner had shown COVID-19 symptoms before the nurse visited the town. “Contact-tracing information provided to Queensland Health for the central Queensland case identified on May 14 was that the individual travelled to Blackwater in the second week of May but did not interact with other individuals there,’’ the statement said.

Nathan Turner.

“Information provided to Queensland Health about the case identified today indicated the man had respiratory symptoms since the first week of May.

“At this time, no evidence has been provided to Queensland Health that links the two cases. But we will continue to assess all information relevant to any case.’’

Dr Young said further testing would take place in the town, on Mr Turner’s partner, and that the locality’s significant number of fly-in-fly-out mine workers would be “investigated as well”.

Dr Young urged Queenslanders in Blackwater and beyond to present for testing.

“Anyone who has any symptoms, no matter how mild they are – or, indeed, if they think they’ve got symptoms and they’re not sure, because we all know there are times when we might have an itchy nose or itchy throat or a runny nose, get tested,” she said.

“That is really, really important.”

Friends of Mr Turner paid tribute to the coalminer on Wednesday night. “He was a larrikin and always the life of the party,” a friend told The Australian.

“He was a funny, kind person who always had time for his mates.”

Others posted messages on Mr Turner’s Facebook page after news of his death spread.

“RIP mate, I am so shocked right now,” one friend said.

“You were a top bloke and always knew how to make your friends smile. Fly high buddy and thoughts to your loved ones.”

Mr Turner had been off work from the Jellinbah mine since November­ with a “complicated” medical condition, understood to relate to seizures and a separate respiratory condition.

Queensland Health said his fiancee was in isolation but had not been admitted to hospital. She found him “unresponsive’’ in their home at 4.30pm on Tuesday after returning from work, and he could not be revived. The police and ambulance officers who attended the scene are also now in quarantine.

A team of public health experts and additional contact-tracing resources have been deployed from Brisbane to Blackwater to track the possible source of the virus, with testing starting at Blackwater Hospital from late on Wednesday.

A fever clinic also will be established at the Blackwater Rodeo Grounds on Thursday for the estimated 5000 people living in and around Blackwater, near Emerald.

A post mortem will be carried out in the next few days to determine the cause of Mr Turner’s death and it has been referred to the coroner.

If COVID-19 is confirmed as the cause of death, Mr Turner will be Australia’s youngest fatality from the virus. There have been 103 confirmed COVID-19 deaths across the country, including his.

The previous youngest victim of the virus in Australia was a 42-year-old man from The Philippines who was a crew member of the Artania cruise ship.