Snap lockdown for Qld after unvaccinated hospital worker’s infection
A “furious” Premier Annastacia Palaszczcuk will send Queensland into a snap three-day lockdown after a COVID case in an unvaccinated hospital worker.
South-east Queensland, Townsville, Palm Island and Magnetic Island will enter lock down from 6pm Tuesday until 6pm Friday.
South-east Queensland includes the 11 local government areas – Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley and Somerset – where restrictions were imposed on Monday.
Tweet from @AnnastaciaMP
Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland had two new community cases on Tuesday.
One is a miner from Ipswich, who is linked to the outbreak at the Northern Territory gold mine and was already in quarantine.
“We considered this person to be of low risk, so that is good,” she said.
But the other is a 19-year-old receptionist from the COVID ward at Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital, who was not vaccinated.
She developed symptoms on Monday, June 21, but had been infectious in the community for 10 days, and had travelled widely in that time. She has been to local shops near her home in Sandgate, in Brisbane’s north, as well as travelling to Magnetic Island and Townsville.
“One of her close friends is sick. They are getting tested and two of her family members are sick and they are getting tested. Despite the health directives that she should have been vaccinated, she was not,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“I am absolutely furious about this. We need to make sure that we are getting our population vaccinated, right across the state. This leaves us with no option.”
- See an updated list of Queensland exposure sites here
Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said 2500 people on Magnetic Island would be tested for the virus.
“That is really important and we have got a fever clinic on the island,” she said.
“In Sydney, in Perth, in Darwin, multiple outbreaks now here in the south-east and for the first time in some time, potential exposure in regional Queensland.
“All of them can be traced back to international arrivals,” she said.
Residents in the locked down areas will have the now-usual restrictions on leaving home. They will be allowed out only to shop for essential items, exercise, or receive or give medical care.
Ms Palaszczuk said she knew it was inconvenient, particularly with Queensland on school holidays.
“I know people have made plans, but we have just got to do this,” she said.
“We have got to do this for three days, there will be a lockdown for three days, and I don’t want it to be 30 days.”
Queensland also had two more COVID cases in hotel quarantine on Tuesday.