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Queensland records NO new coronavirus cases but Brisbane’s brutal lockdown continues after cleaner infected with mutant UK variant identified 147 close contacts
Queensland has recorded no new cases as the state remains on high alert for the highly contagious UK mutant strain.
Greater Brisbane residents are halfway through a three day lockdown after a cleaner at a quarantine hotel was initially diagnosed with the virus strain last week.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed on Sunday 147 close contacts of the hotel cleaner have now been identified with 112 returning a negative result.
While the Premier and the state’s chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young were pleased to report zero new cases, health authorities remain on high alert after a second case of the UK strain was detected in a woman from Victoria who arrived in Brisbane on a Jetstar flight on January 5.
The second infected case had been released from hotel quarantine in Melbourne after just 10 days despite arriving from the UK on Boxing Day.
She arrived in Brisbane on January 5 on Jetstar flight JQ570 at 11pm and then travelled to Maleny on the Sunshine Coast where her parents live.
Local residents are now on high alert and have been urged to get tested after the woman Woolworths, bottle shop and pizza cafe while infectious.
She visited Cappriccios Italian Pizza Restaurant on January 6 between 6.30pm and 7pm, Purple Palate Cellars between 4.15pm and 4.25pm on January 7 and Maleny Woolworths on January 7 between 4.30pm and 4.50pm.
Queensland Health has urged anyone who was at the venues when the woman was there to get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
Once arriving back in Brisbane the woman tested positive to covid-19 – prompting the protocols for hotel quarantine to change, nationally.
Those in hotel quarantine now have to carry out the full 14-day stay under new protocols announced on Friday, and each person will be tested before leaving.
Contact tracing is being carried out for passengers who were near the woman on the Jetstar flight.
Residents in the council areas of Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and Redlands must stay at home until 6pm on Monday except for essential work and shopping, exercise, to access healthcare or look after the vulnerable.
As Queenslanders eye a return to ‘normal’ life from Monday evening, Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has so far been non-committal.
‘We have to wait and see. I know it’s frustrating for people, and I apologise for that, but we have to take this day by day,’ she said on Saturday.
‘Anything is a possibility, but I won’t say how likely any scenario is. We’ve seen that at the moment down in Sydney with some very lengthy periods and then another case pop up. We have to take each day and get the best information we can.
‘The best information is when people are out there getting tested.’
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