Queensland records eight new Covid cases overnight after Brisbane was plunged into a three-day lockdown and an unvaccinated nurse took the virus into New South Wales
Queensland has recorded eight new locally acquired coronavirus cases overnight after Brisbane was plunged into lockdown and an unvaccinated nurse took the virus to New South Wales.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the new infections on Tuesday, the first full day of Greater Brisbane’s three-day snap lockdown.
Ms Palaszczuk said six of the fresh cases are linked to confirmed infections, while two remain under investigation.
Greater Brisbane entered a three-day lockdown on Monday afternoon after four new local coronavirus cases – including the two siblings – were discovered by authorities.
Brisbane residents are seen in face marks on Tuesday, as Queensland records eight additional local Covid cases
The siblings – an unvaccinated nurse and her sister – unknowingly had the virulent UK coronavirus strain while partying in Byron Bay, northern NSW, between March 26 and March 28.
The sisters visited a string of popular venues including the Byron Beach Hotel and The Farm – both of which are now on high alert for potential Covid-19 exposure.
Queensland health officials are now under fire after it emerged the nurse was the second worker at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PA) Covid ward to test positive to coronavirus who had not received their first jab.
Ms Palaszczuk on Tuesday said there are two clusters – one linked to a PA doctor and the other connected to the PA nurse.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said pathology results revealed the nurse has the same genome as a man who was treated in the PA 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.’
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.
More to come
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. A Covid-positive unvaccinated nurse and her sister visited the town on the weekend of March 26-March 28