Massive number of kids, teens infected in SEQ Delta outbreak

Another Queensland student has tested positive to Covid-19 and three more schools have become embroiled in an escalating Brisbane Delta outbreak that has swelled to more than 60 cases.

Ambrose Treacy College in Indooroopilly joins the swag of elite private schools and high-profile state schools embroiled in the Delta strain cluster.

Parents have been informed that students and family members involved in debating on Wednesday July 28 at nearby St Peter’s Lutheran College are now considered “close contacts”.

In an official message to parents and caregivers, Damian Steele, director of co-curricular activities at the all boys’ Catholic school, said students and their families needed to be tested immediately then quarantine for 14 days from Thursday July 29.

Ambrose Treacy’s affiliated school, St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, also officially became linked to the cluster on Wednesday, August 4, after playing GPS rugby against Brisbane Grammar School, on Anglican Church Grammar School fields, on Saturday, July 31.

Terrace wrote to parents on August 4 advising that students in the 12D rugby team who played in a July 31 game at Churchie against Brisbane Grammar School’s 12Bs (which included a student who has since tested positive to Covid-19) are considered close contacts.

Their families are also considered close contacts and have been advised to get tested immediately and quarantine until August 14.

Acting principal Damien Fall said the infected BGS student then watched the 14Bs rugby game between Terrace and Grammar, requiring students who played in that game and their families to also get tested and quarantine.

It comes as another Brisbane Grammar School student and teacher today tested positive for Covid-19, taking the private boys’ school cluster to nine.

It means more BGS families have been ordered into quarantine.

Headmaster Anthony Micallef informed parents on Tuesday an infectious person had been on campus for the week beginning on Monday, July 26.

It meant anyone who visited the school’s Spring Hill campus during that week was now required by Queensland Health to quarantine.

“Queensland Health has requested that we provide details of staff, students, visitors and cocurricular activity lists for the dates 26 to 30 July,” Mr Micallef said.

“This development may impact some of our families who have been in lockdown and not in quarantine, particularly families of year 6 students, who had previously been exempt from quarantine because they were in Cairns.

“They will now need to quarantine and be tested.”

Earlier, it was announced that Queensland had recorded 19 new cases of Covid-19, 16 or which were linked to the Indooroopilly Delta cluster.

That cluster has now swelled to more than 60 cases, making it the state’s biggest outbreak since the first wave of the pandemic last year. There are now 100 cases active across Queensland.

Of the reported cases earlier today – which included two people in hotel quarantine and a man in Cairns – 21 of them are children aged under 10.

Alarmingly, 22 of those infected were aged between 10-19, while four were aged between 20-29 and seven were aged between 30-39.

Three of the cases announced earlier today were from Brisbane Grammar School. This afternoon’s case means six students, one parent and one teacher connected to the Spring Hill site have now been infected with the highly contagious Delta strain currently sweeping multiple Brisbane schools, however The Courier-Mail understands additional positive cases connected to the school were detected on Tuesday.

Neighbouring Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School currently has two confirmed cases linked to the school – one student and one teacher.

Brisbane Grammar School is closed after a number of students, staff and parents tested positive to Covid. Picture: Steve Pohlner

A Covid testing clinic has now been set up at Brisbane Grammar School.

The school’s student population of about 1700 students, along with their households, are currently in 14-day home isolation.

Mr Micallef told parents one of the confirmed cases had attended St Peters Lutheran College for a debating event on the evening of Thursday, July 29.

Mr Micallef commended the BGS community for following the Queensland Health directives, and added he was not able to share who may have tested positive to the school community for privacy reasons.

“I will continue to share all relevant information received from Queensland Health with the BGS community as quickly as possible,” he said.

A COVID testing clinic would operate from 8am until 3pm at the BGS hall in Spring Hill until “everyone in our community, who wants to be tested, has done so during the immediate future”.

Mr Micallef also reassured Year 12 students the school had been in contact with the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority about internal and external exams.

“Importantly, the QCAA has provided the reassurance that no BGS student will be disadvantaged,” he said.

Meanwhile, case numbers have also jumped again at Ironside State School, with 21 students now infected and two teachers.

All students and households connected with Ironside State School are in quarantine, along with the community at Indooroopilly State High School.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton and his family have been forced to quarantine because of their links with one of the schools, while hundreds of surgeons, doctors and health professionals have also been caught up in the private schools cluster.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Speaking at a press conference this morning, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said a case in Cairns reported yesterday was the Delta strain but was not linked to the outbreak in the southeast.

Mr Miles said Queensland had “smashed” its testing record in the past 24 hours with 51,479 tests undertaken and that thousands of people were now in home quarantine because of the outbreak.

He said traffic, public transport and police data from random intercepts all showed a reduction in the number of people moving around the region, and that meant a decrease in the risk of the virus moving around.

But he said authorities were still seeing too many people going shopping for discretionary items.

“The onus is on the individual to have a reason to leave their home … now is not the time to buy outdoor furniture,” he said.

“I urge everyone to consider again whether the reason they’re leaving their home is a good one.”

He said every time people left their home it increased the risk the lockdown would need to be extended.

Asked whether there needed to be more clarity around what constituted essential work, the Deputy Premier urged businesses and individuals to think about whether they needed to leave the house.

Mr Miles said the rules were “pretty strict” but people should “do the right thing”.

“You can’t go out because you need milk but stop and have a look at EB Games,” he said.

“ … Next week you can go out and buy all the sun lounges you need.”

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young. Picture: Brad Fleet

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said there were now 100 active cases in Queensland, which was the most this year.

She said some of the new cases had been out in the community and more exposure sites would go up later today.

Of the new cases, two were in quarantine for their entire infectious period.

However other cases were out in the community for a number of days meaning new exposure sites will be uploaded later.

Dr Young said all of the 63 cases to date were linked and all were within the current 11 LGAs in lockdown so an extension of lockdown wasn’t necessary.

She said authorities were now assessing “hospital at home” which allowed some infected people to stay at home to be managed by virtual care.

Dr Young said it was “entirely possible” she would never find out how exactly this outbreak began.

“It could have been someone who got infected at the airport or at hotel quarantine or at hospital or in the community and are one of the 20 per cent who never show symptoms,” she said.

“It is absolutely possible we’ll never find the missing link.”

Dr Young said she was growing more confident there were no other chains of transmission in the community she didn’t know about.

“I need every single person who has been in Brisbane in the last week at least once a day … to check every single exposure venue,” she said.

She said if you have been to an exposure site, you should contact Queensland Health on

134 Covid or 13 Health.

Authorities are using the Check-In App as well to contact trace but Dr Young said it was about everyone working together.

Dr Young said the pilot in Cairns had “most likely” acquired the Delta strain from a ship he was working on.

“It is not the Delta strain that is circulating in Brisbane,” she said.

Dr Young said she believed the risk in Cairns was low but it’s not “zero”.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said people should continue to go to their vaccination appointments unless they were unwell.

“If you know someone who is home quarantining, give them a call, send them a text … but they must stay home unless they’re getting tested,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said it was up to the community whether the lockdown was extended or not.

“If we do this right over the next five days … we can see the southeast come out of lockdown,” she said.

She said people should not be worrying about health directives or whether they could poke holes in the rules, but simply be using their commonsense around whether they needed to go out and potentially expose themselves to Covid.

Ms D’Ath urged people to continue checking Queensland Health exposure sites.

She said pharmacists had been told 150,000 extra vaccines promised by the Commonwealth would be delivered next week but she said she was trying to fast-track that.

She said it wasn’t good enough that the state had to wait and the Queensland Government would look at its own AstraZeneca supply to see whether they could bridge that gap of time.

Ms D’Ath said not all elective surgeries were being cancelled, with decisions being made at individual hospital and health services.

She said she only found out about the 150,000 extra doses of AstraZeneca in the media yesterday.

“If Greg Hunt says they’ve got 150,000 now … then it should be on trucks today,” she said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski thanked Queenslanders for abiding by the restrictions.

He said RBT-style intercepts were rolled out yesterday and will continue, while 62 businesses were checked.

All were compliant.

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said police would look into a case in which a man who wasn’t wearing a mask was filmed having an apparent medical episode on the ground.

“I don’t have all the facts but I do understand that this gentleman was approached because he was not wearing a mask so in the interaction between police and him, he suffered some sort of episode,” he said.

He said an ambulance was called but he understood paramedics could not find any medical issue with him.

He said no action had been taken at this time.

Meanwhile, police have ramped up their lockdown enforcement with a massive RBT-style checkpoint set up on the Gold Coast Highway at Surfers Paradise.

Police stopping vehicles on the Gold Coast Highway to enforce the southeast's Covid lockdown and stop non-essential travel. Picture: 9 News

Police announced on Tuesday that they would be establishing RBT-style checkpoints across the southeast to ensure people had an essential reason to be travelling.

This morning in Surfers Paradise, officers are diverting vehicles off the Gold Coast Highway to perform checks on drivers and their passenger.

Originally published as Massive number of kids, teens infected in SEQ Delta outbreak