Queensland records three new cases of COVID-19 with potential of more to come

Coronavirus cases surged to six overnight as the Premier urged everyone in the Brisbane area to get tested.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reported three additional cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Two of the cases were linked to The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point, Sydney, a known COVID-19 hot spot – the couple from Brisbane dined at the restaurant and chose to self-isolate.

The remaining case was a male, in his 20s, who had recently returned from the United States.

The Premier said Thursday’s cases were unrelated to Wednesday’s reported cases of Diana Lasu and Olivia Winnie Muranga, both 19, who crossed the border illegally into Brisbane from Melbourne via Sydney, as well as a known close contact of the young women.

“We need to make sure that everyone is doing the right thing. If you are sick do not go to work,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We really want people to come and get tested if they are in the Brisbane area and if they have any symptoms whatsoever.”

The Premier said Queensland Health had carried out 6800 tests, and almost 1000 of those tests were from Brisbane’s metro south area.

“I want to commend both health and the police for the rapid response that they have been deploying over the past 24 hours,” she said.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said the Government did the right thing in declaring Greater Sydney a hot spot for those wanting to cross the border.

“The fact that two of three new cases came from Sydney, as well as the fact that two of the cases reported yesterday had transited through Sydney, underlines how important it is that we have made the decision to declare Greater Sydney as a hot spot,” he said.

“It will allow us to control cases returning from Sydney where we know there are outbreaks.”

Chief medical officer Dr Jeannette Young said while she thought New South Wales was getting on top of its virus “clusters”, until they did it was sensible that the border remained closed to Greater Sydney.

Dr Young also indicated Queensland Health could potentially announce further cases later on Thursday as a result of Wednesday’s testing.

“It’s too early to have got all of those results back yet. We usually get results back in 24 hours,” Dr Young said.

“It’s really important that people adhere to the restrictions that are in place today. There are limits on people who go into venues, which means one person per four square metres, and very small venues are capped at 50.”

Thursday’s three confirmed cases brings Queensland’s total active cases to 11. The state’s total number of cases to date is 1082.

Originally published as Queensland records three new cases of COVID-19 with potential of more to come