Thousand in isolation in Queensland as cluster grows
More than 1000 in Queensland are in quarantine or isolation after a third medical worker from Brisbane’s main southside hospital fell sick.
More than 1000 people in Queensland are in quarantine or isolation and contact tracing is under way for more than 100 venues after a third medical worker from Brisbane’s main southside hospital fell sick with COVID-19.
The second of Brisbane’s two COVID-19 clusters expanded by two cases on Wednesday and spilled over the border into northern NSW, prompting restrictions in four local government areas and cancellation of the Bluesfest music festival.
A nurse working on the COVID-19 ward at the Princess Alexandra Hospital tested positive to the virus on Wednesday, along with her housemate, becoming the 10th and 11th members of the growing second cluster.
The nurse had already been given the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine but, according to genomic sequencing, somehow picked up the virus from a patient in the hospital who had flown to Brisbane from India and had tested positive in hotel quarantine.
Authorities are trying to uncover how the nurse became infected. The affected ward has been shut down as a precaution.
“We just need to work out how she got it on that ward,” Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said.
She said the full effectiveness of the vaccine had not been realised because not enough time had elapsed after the jab was given.
A similar investigation is ongoing into how another nurse, whose infection sparked Brisbane’s second cluster, picked up the virus, despite not treating the patient from India.
That nurse, who was not vaccinated, is believed to have become infected during her shift on March 23.
“We know it has got from that patient to her (the first nurse) but she wasn’t directly caring for that patient, she didn’t have direct interaction, which means there is likely some environmental contamination of the virus or some aerosolization,” Dr Young said
“That’s why that ward has been closed, No one is going in or out of that ward. Everyone who was in there has been moved out and there was a very thorough clean of that ward.”
The nurse and her sister attended a hen’s party at a private residence in Byron Bay at the weekend, unwittingly infecting at least seven other people, including a NSW case and a Gold Coast tradesman who attended the party as an “entertainer”.
The number of people in the cluster stood at 11 on Wednesday.
The first cluster, detected on March 12, was sparked by the infection of a doctor at the PA.
The number of people infected by that cluster remained at eight on Wednesday; two suspected infections of close contacts of the group later turned out to be false.
Contact tracers have listed alerts outside the Greater Brisbane lockdown zone for venues in Gladstone, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast.
One infected person is in the Toowoomba Hospital; another is being treated in Bundaberg.
Dr Young said both hospitals had treated COVID-19 patients before.
The spike in cases and the threat of Easter being spent in lockdown has prompted an increase in the number of people being tested for the virus.
More than 33,000 people were tested in Queensland on Tuesday and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hoped similar numbers in coming days would bolster the confidence of authorities to end the lockdown in time for Easter.
There were 71 active cases in the state, 58 acquired overseas.
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