Three more people linked to Brisbane’s Portuguese Family Centre has contracted COVID-19.

They include the centre’s president, Carlos Almeida, who confirmed he had tested positive for the virus and was in Royal Brisbane Hospital with symptoms.

He was at the centre when it was visited by a COVID-positive flight attendant who caught the virus during her stay in hotel quarantine.

Mr Almeida said his wife had tested negative to COVID-19 but will be retested. The couple were already in quarantine after the first Portuguese Family Centre case emerge last weekend.

Queensland health authorities also confirmed two more infections linked to the centre on Thursday. Chief health officer Jeannette Young said they were travellers with the Portuguese flight attendant and had returned to hotel quarantine after her diagnosis.

“That’s not surprising that they’ve become infected. They went back into hotel quarantine so they’ve been there their entire infectious period,” she said.

“I’m not concerned that any of the three cases are a risk to the Queensland community.”

There have been four cases linked to the flight attendant after a man who visited the family centre tested positive earlier this week.

Others who were at the centre – 36 in all – are continuing to isolate and are being monitored.

The flight attendant’s positive result was confirmed by a routine test after she visited the centre as well as the direct factory outlet at Brisbane Airport.

Dr Young believes she was infected by a hotel quarantine worker who escorted a COVID-positive guest to an ambulance and then went to the attendant’s room to swab her.

Elsewhere, Queensland Police were meeting flights to the sunshine state from NSW on Thursday morning and turning around people leaving coronavirus hotspots.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said 20 passengers from 120 on one Sydney flight had been denied entry to Queensland.

“What we’ve seen with some of the cases there is that it is highly, highly infectious,” he said.

“Fleeting contacts of five-10 seconds can result in infection. It means that you only have to be in the same breathing space as someone with this variant to risk contracting it.”

Since 1am Thursday, Queensland has closed its borders to people who have been in greater Sydney, Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour. Returning Queenslanders have been in those areas must go into hotel quarantine.

-with AAP