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Brisbane COVID cluster spreads, warnings issued

NSW will no longer require people to report positive rapid COVID tests.

NSW will no longer require people to report positive rapid COVID tests. Photo: AAP

A man who is a close contact of a landscaper who tested positive for COVID-19 in Brisbane has also tested positive for the virus.

The man, who lives in Strathpine, is close friend of the 26-year-old case who tested positive on Friday.

Another 18 close contacts of the first case are self-isolating and getting tested.

Queensland Health is now contact tracing for the second case, who has also been out in the community in recent days.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says there’s no need to be alarmed about the situation as long as everyone maintains social-distancing and gets tested.

“We are not seeing large scale community transmission, this is a close contact,” she told reporters.

We’re very comfortable where we are at the moment and if anything changes we will update the public.”

Contact-tracers are focusing on the Carindale Westfield shopping centre and the Mama’s Italian restaurant in Redcliffe, where the landscaper is more likely to have interacted with the most people.

The man visited the shopping centre between 12pm and 2.16pm last Saturday and the restaurant between 12.30pm and 3.10pm on Sunday.

“We really want people from that Carindale shopping centre that were there for that particular period of time, to please come forward and get tested on it,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“That’s pretty crucial so we can we can rule out any further community spread.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said both new cases are linked to a Princess Alexandra Hospital doctor who was diagnosed on March 12.

The doctor visited four venues in the city’s south while she was infectious, with Dr Young saying it was likely the landscaper had caught the virus from an intermediary yet to be identified.

Authorities have listed 11 exposure sites visited by the landscaper including the shopping centre in Carindale and Bunnings, Aldi and Guzman y Gomez outlets in Stafford.

Anyone who visited those sites must immediately get tested regardless of whether they have symptoms, and isolate until results are received.

Queensland Health will soon publish a list of sites visited by the second virus case.

The landscaper’s infection sparked another lockdown of the city’s hospitals and aged care homes, due to him spending a week in the community while infectious.

The partial lockdown, which kicked in at noon on Friday, won’t end for a week and affects hospitals, aged care facilities, prisons and disability services providers in the Brisbane City and Moreton Bay council areas.

Health authorities in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania have advised anyone who visited the Queensland exposure sites against entering their states.

If recent visitors to a high-risk site or area have already travelled interstate, they are advised to self-isolate and contact public health authorities.

At the AFL in Melbourne on Friday night, people who had been in Brisbane were told to leave the grounds, including commentators Luke Hodge and Wayne Carey.

The declaration threw Friday’s AFL clash between the Brisbane Lions and Geelong into into chaos as the health advice came through less than an hour before the first bounce.

COVID cast its grim shadow over Kardinia Park.

The game at GMHBA Stadium went ahead as the Cats defeated the Lions in a one-point thriller but the fallout could be significant.

Lions players and staff have been told to stay in their hotel rooms until being told what to do by the AFL.

Brisbane are due to host the Magpies at the Gabba in five days in what is traditionally their biggest home game of the year.

At quarter-time, an alert flashed up on the stadium scoreboard saying anyone that it affected must leave the ground and follow the health advice.

Potential COVID contamination sites

Visitors to the following venues at these specified times, as identified by Queensland Health, must isolate for 14 days and get tested:

* Westfield Carindale Shopping Centre, 12pm-2.16pm
* Black Hops Brewery, East Brisbane, 12:22pm-1:51pm
* Green Beacon brewing Co, Teneriffe, 2pm-3:12pm
* Market Organics, Newmarket, 2:45pm-3pm
* Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill, 3:44pm-5:30pm
* Baskin-Robbins, Everton Park, 9.20pm-9.25pm
Sunday, March 21
* Gasworks, Newstead, 9.50am-10.20am
* Genki Mart, Alderley, 10:30am-10:46am
* Mama’s Italian restaurant, Redcliffe, 12.20pm-3.10pm
Monday, March 22
* PCYC Lawnton, 7:16am-8:10am
* Bunnings, Stafford, 12.40pm-12.50pm
* Bunnings, Lawnton, 3:15pm-3:30pm
* Strathpine Plaza Shopping Centre, Strathpine, 3.43pm-3.49pm
Tuesday, March 23
* Zambrero, Lawnton, 12:51pm-12:55pm
* Lawnton Fruit Market, Lawnton, 1.57pm-2.05pm
* Nellas Gourmet Tucker, Lawnton, 3:37pm-3:47pm
* Poolwerx, Strathpine 3.52pm-3.57pm
* Dan Murphy’s, Strathpine, 7:26pm-7:36pm
* Hungry Jacks drive through, Strathpine, 7:47pm
Wednesday, March 24
* Lawton Country Markets, Lawnton, 2.36pm-2.43pm
Thursday, March 25
* Aldi, Stafford, 8.30am-8:45am
* Nundah Village Family Practice, Nundah, 11.15am-11.40am.
* BWS, Strathpine, 6:15pm-6:30pm
* Ceres Pizza Cafe, Strathpine, 7.00pm-7.58pm

-AAP

 

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