Covid Qld: Mask mandate extended amid concerns over infected backpacker’s WA flights

Mask restrictions in the southeast will remain in place for another week as authorities express concern over a number of flights taken by a man who tested positive at a Brisbane backpackers after being turned away at the WA border.

Mask restrictions will remain in place for another week in southeast Queensland despite the state recording just one new COVID case overnight – an overseas-acquired case and detected in hotel quarantine.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the genomic sequencing had revealed the backpacker was a direct link to other cases that were on board the same plane as him.

Those cases stayed in other hotels, which means he did not acquire the virus in hotel quarantine.

“Those other three travellers were sent to a different hotel quarantine, which confirms for us this gentleman has contracted it from one of the other travellers while either on the plane or in transit,” Ms D’Ath said.

Ms D’Ath confirmed the man had the Alpha variant.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the Philippines traveller who tested positive in Queensland after leaving hotel quarantine travelled to Western Australia and then back again.

Dr Young said the man was turned around at the WA border and returned to Queensland.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

She said the details of the flights would be released so other passengers could be contact traced.

Dr Young said it was too early to relax at the moment, which was why mask wearing was needed for another week.

Ms D’Ath emphasised the effectiveness of the mask mandate.

Queensland #COVID19 update 29/07/21

😷 Mask wearing to continue in parts of Queensland until Friday 6 August 2021

📏 Don’t forget to social distance – be conscious of how close you are to others

Further details to come shortly.

— Queensland Health (@qldhealthnews) July 29, 2021

“We have been able to contain all of these outbreaks to very small numbers and that’s in no small part due to all the restrictions in place, including mask wearing and people staying at home while they’re unwell,” she said.

“It’s important we continue to practice mask wearing to ensure we don’t have transmission going through our community.”

She warned that police would be out and about to enforce the mask mandate.

Dr Young said the latest results overnight were good news.

She said the backpacker had the same genome sequencing as three other cases, who he was on the same planes as.

The man is unknown to the three other cases.

“So he’s clearly acquired it in transit to Queensland,” Dr Young said.

She said officials had not yet got in touch with everyone who had stayed at the same backpackers accomodation site.

But she said she was confident that the accomodation site had very good records to track people down.

Fifty-nine of 62 people from the Roma St Backpackers that have been tested have returned a negative result.

The three remaining tests are expected later today as they were tested late last night.

Joe’s Backpackers has also been locked down. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The man is said to have stayed mostly in his room during his duration at the backpackers.

The two people he shared his room with tested negative to Covid-19.

Residents will be kept in the hostel rather than moved to a quarantine facility.

Authorities are yet to figure out which will be deemed close contacts and which will be causal contacts who are free to leave.

The people in the hostel will be tested more frequently than the normal testing periods.

The government will be providing food and medical support for those quarantining in their rooms.

Dr Young said they haven’t yet tested everyone who was in the hotel for the duration the positive case was there but from talking to his roommate she believed he stayed in his room for most of the time he was sick.

Police secure the City Backpackers hostel in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

There were about 25,000 tests in the Sunshine State in the past 24 hours.

It comes as 10 crewmen from a ship riddled with Covid have been taken to hospital on the Gold Coast in a military-style operation.

The crew were among 21 on the bulk carrier MV Sanyu which arrived in the Torres Strait from the Philippines on Monday.

Nineteen of the crew have so far tested positive with Covid and the ship was directed to Weipa so the sick seamen could be removed.

Five of the crew were airlifted from Weipa to Brisbane on Wednesday night on a private medivac flight before being transferred by ambulance to Gold Coast University Hospital.

It’s understood arrangements were being made to transfer the remaining Covid-positive crew.

With limited beds in Queensland hospital Covid wards, authorities were scrambling to handle the mass influx of patients from the ship.

The Wednesday locally acquired case prompted Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young to say Queensland’s hotel quarantine system is “clearly insufficient” and an alternative is “seriously needed”.

The state is grappling with its fifth potential leak of the virus in two months after a man who likely became infected in hotel quarantine unwittingly spent four days in the community while infectious, including staying at the Roma Street City Backpackers.

Meanwhile, a decision on lifting the mask mandate introduced at the start of the month is expected on Friday after being lifted twice, but southeast Queenslanders will likely face another week wearing masks, with Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young “very concerned” about “repeated incursions” of the virus into the state.

Another 19 cases were also recorded on Wednesday after all but two crew members of a bulk carrier in Queensland waters tested positive.

There were over 5,000 vehicles intercepted at the border yesterday, with dozens turned around.

There were 36 masks handed out by police on Wednesday.

Originally published as Covid Qld: Mask mandate extended amid concerns over infected backpacker’s WA flights