Tradie who worked as a ‘male entertainer’ at a hen’s party in Byron Bay is among five new Covid cases linked to Queensland hospital cluster
- The outbreak is believed to have spread to NSW during a bachelorette party
- A nurse with Covid-19 and her sister travelled to Byron Bay for the celebration
- A ‘male entertainer’ who attended the party has since tested positive to Covid
- Queensland has 15 cases of Covid-19, as Brisbane is plunged into lockdown
A tradesman who worked as a ‘male entertainer’ at Byron Bay hen’s party is among five new Covid cases linked to a Queensland cluster.
The new cases are all linked to a nurse from Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital and her sister, who spent March 25 to 28 at the holiday hotspot for a bachelorette party.
On Tuesday it was revealed that the cluster has blown out to at least 10 more people who are infected with deadly UK strain of Covid-19, bringing Queensland’s total number of cases to 15.
Upon returning home to the Gold Coast, the entertainer went to an aged care facility where every resident had already had their first dose of the vaccine.
The nurse and her sister partied in NSW’s Byron Bay (testing site pictured) for a bachelorette party while infected with Covid
Pictured: Health workers setting up a drive through Covid-19 testing site at the Cavanbah Centre on March 29 in Byron Bay
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said pathology results revealed the nurse has the same genome as a man who was treated in the Princess Alexandra Hospital and tested on March 22.
The nurse worked in the Covid ward on March 18 and then did a night shift on March 23 – but was not dealing with coronavirus infections that night.
‘My hypothesis – and this all has to be tested, this all has to be checked out, this is very preliminary information – is that she has acquired the infection when at work that night,’ Dr Young said.
‘I don’t know whether she’s got it directly from that patient, because she wasn’t working with Covid cases that night, but we have to confirm that, or whether she’s got it from someone else in the hospital.’
Pictured: People socially distancing at Main Beach on March 29 after Covid-infected people visited the town
Pictured: Byron Bay Beach Hotel, where a Covid-infected nurse and her sister visited between March 25 and 28
Pictured: A closed sign due to COVID-19 positive case having visited at The Farm on March 28, 2021 in Byron Bay
Dr Young said five of the cases overnight were linked to the nurse and her sister.
‘They’re all linked cases, and they all attended a party together down in Byron Bay,’ she said.
Byron Bay residents are being urged to be especially vigilant in monitoring their health and are encouraging anyone with even the mildest symptoms to get tested immediately and self-isolate until told otherwise.
Ghanda Clothing, Tiger Lily, Black Sheep, Quicksilver, Suffolk Bakery and the Park Hotel Bottle Shop are in that category as well as Byron Beach Hotel, The Farm and Suffolk Beachfront Holiday Park.
NSW Health released an alert on Monday evening saying anyone who had visited the Queensland capital since March 20 must immediately self-isolate and not leave their house until Thursday at 5pm.
A line-up is pictured at a walk-through Covid-19 testing site at the Surf Life Saving Club in Byron Bay in northern New South Wales on Monday
Pictured: People lining up to be tested at a walk-through COVID testing site at the Surf Life Saving Club on March 29 in Byron Bay
The outbreak prompted NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to residents to brace themselves for another wave of Covid-19.
NSW recorded zero new cases overnight from 7,300 tests, but Ms Berejiklian said that number was too low for officials to know they hadn’t missed any community transmission of the virus.
The state leader said she ‘would not be surprised’ if Queensland’s outbreak of the highly-contagious B117 UK strain of the virus spread south of the border.
She ruled out though shutting the border despite the Sunshine State announcing 10 new local cases of the virus on Tuesday.
‘The NSW government is confident we have the provisions in place to get on top of it,’ she said.
‘I hope we do not have any cases arise in New South Wales but I would not be surprised if we did, so we must brace ourselves.
‘We are expecting more cases from Queensland and hopefully most of those cases will be people in isolation, although we have to assume this is an evolving situation.’
