Over 1000 Qld families ordered to isolate
Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young is stepping down, and will become state governor next week. Photo: AAP
More than 1000 southeast Queensland families have been ordered to quarantine for two weeks after they were potentially exposed to the coronavirus by a four-year-old girl infected by an interstate truck driver.
The girl tested positive to the virus on Friday, and is the daughter of a close family friend of a Logan truck driver who was diagnosed with the virus on Thursday.
He had been active in the community for five days, though other close contacts of the driver have so far tested negative.
The girl was likely infectious in the community for two days, chief health officer Jeanette Young told reporters on Saturday, and attended the Boulevard Early Learning Centre in Windaroo.
A hundred families whose children attended the same centre have been forced into 14 days of home quarantine.
Some 960 families of children who attend Windaroo State School must also isolate for 14 days, after the school was attended by thirty students who also went to before and after school hours care at the daycare centre.
Dr Young said she believed the risk posed by the girl was “under control”, but is more concerned about the truck driver, who was active in the community for several days with a high viral load.
“I’m very, very concerned we have had this transmission,” she said.
“I know from the … truck driver’s test result he had a lot of virus there.
“The child didn’t, so I’m actually less concerned about the child, and I think we have that in hand in terms of having locked down that childcare centre and the school.”
A public health alert has also been issued for Beenleigh Marketplace, which the infected truck driver visited between 10:30am and 11:45am on Monday.
Those who were there at the time are asked to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
Authorities are most concerned about the the Stylish Nail Salon inside the centre, which was visited by the driver, as not all of the salon’s customers had checked in.
“There was one person during that time, checked in … but we know there was at least eight customers there in addition to this gentleman … so we do need people to come forward,” Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said.
“This is a good reminder for everyone, businesses and individuals all have a responsibility to make sure that people are checking in.”
Restrictions will remain at their current setting for the time being, Dr Young said, but could be ramped up if health authorities identify transmission at the Beenleigh Marketplace.
“This is a really high risk period for us,” she said.
“It depends if we find cases who went to the Beenleigh Marketplace and have since then been out infectious in the community in an uncontrolled situation.
“That would lead me to think that we need to consider a lockdown.”
Anyone in the Beenleigh and Logan areas with even the mildest of symptoms is urged to come forward for testing.
One overseas-acquired case was also diagnosed in hotel quarantine on Friday.
-AAP