Queensland holds its breath as it’s revealed woman infected with highly-contagious UK strain of Covid visited a Woolworths, a bottle shop and a popular pizzeria while infected
- Health officials have issued an alert for three venues in Maleny, Queensland
- Sunshine State reported zero Covid cases on Saturday with 14,000 tests done
- Alert sparked after woman flew from Melbourne and tested positive to UK strain
- The Greater Brisbane area went into day one of three day lockdown on Saturday
A woman infected with the highly contagious UK strain of Covid-19 visited a Queensland Woolworths, bottle shop and pizza cafe while infectious.
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.
The woman flew into Melbourne from the UK on December 26, tested positive for coronavirus, and then was allowed to fly to Queensland after completing 10 days of quarantine.
Queensland Health has issued an alert for three venues in Maleny (pictured: health workers are seen at a COVID-19 drive through testing clinic at Murarrie in Brisbane, Friday)
The infectious woman visited Cappriccios Italian Pizza Restaurant (pictured) in Maleny on January 6 between 6.30pm and 7pm
The woman also visited Purple Palate Cellars (pictured right) between 4.15pm and 4.25pm on January 7 and Maleny Woolworths (pictured left) on January 7 between 4.30pm and 4.50pm
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.
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.
Anyone who was at the venues during those hours as well as passengers on the Jetstar flight are asked to watch for symptoms and get tested and self-isolate should they appear.
Genome sequencing from the woman’s Melbourne test revealed she had the UK variant, leading to Queensland health officials testing her again.
She was still testing positive to coronavirus after the second test, prompting the venue warning from Queensland Health.
Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said the woman was at the end of her infectious period so the risk to others was low.
‘This is very, very, very low risk, but it’s not zero risk, so we’re just taking all of those precautions,’ she said on Saturday.
The woman arrived in Brisbane on January 5 on Jetstar flight JQ570 at 11pm and then traveled to Maleny on the Sunshine Coast just outside of the Greater Brisbane lockdown area
Queensland reported zero new cases of coronavirus on Saturday with more than 14,000 tests being done in the previous 24 hours (pictured: Brisbane on Saturday)
Queensland Health also issued a separate urgent alert for anyone who visited two supermarkets in Brisbane’s south when a hotel quarantine cleaner was there who has also tested positive to the UK strain.
These are the Coles at Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown on January 5 between 7.30am and 8am and the Woolworths at Calamvale North on January 3 between 11am and 12pm.
Anyone who was at the store during these hours in considered a close contact and must immediately get tested and quarantine for 14-days regardless of the test result.
Queensland reported zero new cases of coronavirus on Saturday with more than 14,000 tests being done in the previous 24 hours.
The Greater Brisbane area has gone into day one of a three day lockdown on Saturday designed to allow contact tracers to get ahead of the quarantine hotel cleaners case.
The hotel cleaner’s case, a woman in her 20s, was infectious from January 2 before testing positive after showing symptoms on Wednesday.
Anyone with symptoms of coronavirus is urged to get tested immediately.
Contact tracers are tracking the movements of the cleaner, who worked at the hotel Grand Chancellor on January 2.
The infected cleaner, a woman in her 20s who lives in Algester, had been working at the Hotel Grand Chancellor at Spring Hill (pictured), with her most recent shift on January 2