A fully vaccinated Queensland woman has tested positive for the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, while visiting her family in the Far North Queensland town of Mareeba.
Public health alerts have been issued for the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, and locations in Far North Queensland.
Queensland health authorities believe the woman, who had been studying in Victoria, contracted the virus at the Young and Jackson pub in Melbourne on July 10, before travelling to her home state for a holiday three days later.
On July 15, while visiting friends on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Victorian contact tracers alerted the woman via text that she had been at an exposure site and to get tested; she tested negative. She then visited various locations in the community while unknowingly infectious.
The next day, she caught an Uber, a bus, and a train to Brisbane airport before boarding Virgin Australia’s VA791 to Cairns.
As a result, contact tracing is underway for everyone onboard flight VA791 from Brisbane to Cairns on July 16.
Chief Health Officer Dr. Jeannette Young believes she was infectious in the community from July 15 and probably until July 17, and is waiting on test results to understand the level of risk Queensland is facing.
She said the woman, aged in her 20s, was fully vaccinated and wore a mask while she was out and about and while she was on public transport and the flight to Cairns.
“I’m most concerned about her household contacts in Maroochydore and up in Mareeba. As soon as we’ve got those results ... that will give me a sense of what the risk is.”
Young is also worried about anyone who dined at the popular Rice Boi restaurant at The Wharf, at Mooloolaba, between 6.45 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 15.
She says they must get tested immediately and isolate until public health officials make contact.
She has also urged people to be vigilant if they were at the Sunshine Coast Plaza shopping centre that same day, between 3.55 p.m. and 4.15 p.m.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath linked the woman’s infection back to the expanding outbreak in NSW.
“We now have transmission from that NSW cluster in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland,” she said.
D'Ath urged people not to leave the state and said Queenslanders who are currently elsewhere should get home quickly if the situation deteriorates further.
“We now have a 10-fold increase in cases across Australia in five weeks. We are now at 1360 cases across Australia, where only five weeks ago we were down to 127.”
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