Covid-19 Australia: Unvaccinated hospital worker who sparked Queensland’s lockdown has DELTA strain 

An unvaccinated hospital worker who sparked a three-day lockdown in Queensland has the highly-contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 and her brother has also tested positive. 

Millions of Queenslanders are in lockdown again amid fears the coronavirus ward receptionist at Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital may have spread the virus to northern parts of the state. 

The 19-year-old was not vaccinated but continued to work shifts as a concierge stationed just outside the coronavirus ward of Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. 

A close friend and another family member are also now ill and awaiting test results. The receptionist also had contact with three other hospital workers.  

The young woman tested positive on Monday but is believed to have been infectious in the community for about 10 days, and in that time worked two shifts at the hospital and went on a family holiday to Townsville. 

Late on Tuesday, authorities confirmed the hospital receptionist has the Delta variant, which is twice as contagious as the original virus and can be spread through fleeting contact that lasts just seconds. 

New venues were added to the growing list of exposure sites in Queensland on Tuesday night, including four stores at Chermside Shopping Centre in Brisbane’s inner-north. 

 

Anyone who visited the Rebel Sport store in the Chermside Shopping Centre in Brisbane’s north on June 28 between 3.20pm and 3.35pm must get tested and self-isolate until further notice

Anyone who visited the Country Road store in the shopping centre on the same day between 3.20pm-3.35pm and 3.30pm-3.55pm must also follow the same health order

Anyone who visited the Country Road store in the shopping centre on the same day between 3.20pm-3.35pm and 3.30pm-3.55pm must also follow the same health order

Anyone who visited the Rebel Sport store on June 28 between 3.20pm and 3.35pm  must get tested and self-isolate until told otherwise by Queensland Health.

The order applies as well to those who visited the Footlocker or Country Road store in the shopping centre on the same day between 3.20pm-3.35pm and 3.30pm-3.55pm respectively. 

Those who visited the centre’s Athletes Foot branch between 3.55pm and 4.10pm or the Shaw Park Tennis Centre in nearby Wooloowin between 4.20pm and 4.40pm on that day also must get tested and self-isolate until further notice.

Large swathes of the state are now under a snap three-day lockdown until 6pm on Friday, when it will be reviewed.

But given how contagious the Delta variant is, how long the worker was freely moving around Brisbane and north Queensland, there is a very real risk she has infected others in both locations.

The lockdown covers Townsville, nearby Magnetic and Palm islands, and all 11 local government areas in the state’s south-east corner.

NEW QUEENSLAND COVID-19 EXPOSURE SITES 

Chermside Shopping Centre, Chermside, Brisbane:

Rebel Sport, Monday 28 June 2021 – 3.20pm – 3.35pm

Footlocker, Monday 28 June 2021 – 3.20pm – 3.35pm

Country Road, Monday 28 June 2021 – 3.30pm – 3.55pm

Athletes Foot, Monday 28 June 2021 – 3.55pm – 4.10pm

Shaw Park Tennis Centre, Wooloowin, Brisbane – 4.20pm – 4.40pm

Every single one of Magnetic Island’s 2,500 residents has been told to get tested, and authorities have included Palm Island given it has a large Indigenous population that would be more vulnerable to the virus.

Townsville exposure sites include the airport, the city’s popular Sunday markets, the ferry to Magnetic Island, and the entirety of the island.

Virgin Australia flight 369 from Brisbane to Townsville on Thursday, June 24, is also an exposure site along with the family’s return flight, Virgin Australia, 374, on Sunday, June 27.

The ill-fated journey of the 19-year-old woman who sparked Queensland's three-day lockdown

The ill-fated journey of the 19-year-old woman who sparked Queensland’s three-day lockdown

In Brisbane exposure sites include the hospital where the woman worked, Brisbane airport, a Woolworths at Sandgate, where the woman lives, and a local gym.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promised an investigation into why the hospital worker was not vaccinated, and expressed exacerbation that unprotected staff continue to show up for work in high-risk environments.

‘She should have been vaccinated, she was not. So the health minister will be overseeing that issue in detail,’ she told reporters. ‘I am absolutely furious about this.’

The concierge was one of two cases of community transmission reported on Tuesday. The second was another miner who returned to Queensland from a Northern Territory mine where Delta has also been circulating.

But Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young considers him low risk because he’s been isolating since very soon after returning to his home at Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

He is the second miner among a group of 170 who returned to Queensland from the mine. All are in isolation and are being closely monitored.

The premier acknowledged the hard, fast lockdown would cause pain but did not offer any new support measures for businesses who’ll lose days of trading, despite pressure from the Opposition and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

She repeated demands for the federal government to dramatically slash overseas arrivals, including returning Australians, until vaccination rates are vastly higher in Queensland.

Meanwhile, Queenslanders aged under 60 have been told to stick with the Pfizer vaccine, after the prime minister declared all Australians, no matter their age, would be able to get AstraZeneca at GP clinics under an indemnity scheme.

Motorists waiting for COVID-19 testing are seen lined up in their cars at Highgate Hill in Brisbane, Tuesday, June 29

Motorists waiting for COVID-19 testing are seen lined up in their cars at Highgate Hill in Brisbane, Tuesday, June 29

The partial lockdown covers residents of Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley, the Scenic Rim, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Magnetic Island and nearby Palm Island.

Residents in those areas will only be allowed to leave home to shop for essential items, exercise, or receive or give medical care.

Masks remain mandatory and other restrictions have also been tightened including limiting funerals to 20 people, and weddings to 10 people, including the celebrant and couple.

As cases grow elsewhere Queensland will declare Perth and Peel in Western Australia and Darwin, Palmerston and Litchfield in the Northern Territory as hotspots from 1am on Wednesday.

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