February 4, 2021
Anyone who has visited the Greater Melbourne area from January 29 has been urged to come forward and get tested for COVID-19.
On Wednesday night, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced a worker at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne had tested positive and had been out in the community when probably infectious.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said it was being treated as the worker being infectious from January 29.
“I am asking that anyone who has been in Greater Melbourne since January 29 onwards needs to come forward immediately and get themselves tested – whether or not they’ve got symptoms – and isolate until they get a negative result,” Dr Young said.
As well, anyone who has been in any of the venues that Victorian health authorities have listed as a concern on their website should get tested and then quarantine for 14 days, even if they get a negative result.
As a precaution, Queensland Health is also restricting visitors who have been in Greater Melbourne from January 29 onwards from vulnerable facilities including aged care, hospitals, disability accommodation and corrective services.
Victoria also announced on Wednesday a case of transmission within another quarantine hotel.
Dr Young said six people from the same hotel had entered Queensland during the period when there was potential transmission within that site.
“We’re chasing those six people up (now) and testing them,” Dr Young said.
Dr Young said there was no decision to close the border but she asked Queenslanders to reconsider travel to Victoria.
- External link: Victorian Public Exposure Sites
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Vaccinations against the virus that cause COVID-19 could be rolled out in Queensland’s Indigenous communities in April.
Dr Young said the Astra Zeneca vaccine, not the Pfizer vaccine, would be the one distributed.
“There is some really exciting news from CSL,” Dr Young said.
“They will be producing one million doses per week for Australia by the end of March.
“The TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) has to first approve it but when that happens, CSL said they would have available (at the end of March) one million doses for across the country.
“It will probably be some time in April, I would suspect, that we would start considering to roll it out in First Nations’ discrete communities.”
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Fragments of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in the Yeppoon sewage catchment.
Yeppoon sewer catchment receives sewage from the suburbs of Taroomball, Inverness, Hidden Valley, Rosslyn, Mulambin, Cooee Bay, Barlows Hill, Lammermoor, Meikleville Hill, Pacific Heights, Taranganba and Yeppoon.
Dr Young said the continued detections across the State were becoming more concerning.
“We continue to urge anyone with any symptoms, no matter how mild to come forward and get tested,” she said.
Since January 18, viral fragments have been detected at Cairns South, Capalaba, Carole Park, Cleveland, Condon, Coombabah, Gibson Island, Luggage Point, Mackay North, Mackay South, Marlin Coast, Maroochydore, Maryborough, Mount St John, Nambour, Pulgul, Rockhampton South, Sandgate and Yeppoon.
Samples are not being taken at all wastewater treatment plants in Queensland.
Sampling locations for collection have been chosen to represent larger population centres, holiday towns and some communities close to the border with NSW.
UPDATE February 5: Viral fragments have also been detected in the Oxley Creek, Bundaberg and Elanora sewage catchments.
