March 27, 2021

Six new cases of COVID-19 in Queensland were announced on Saturday, including a close contact of the Brisbane man who tested positive on Thursday.

The remaining five cases are overseas-acquired and in hotel quarantine.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said a man in his 20s from Strathpine, north of Brisbane, has tested positive to the virus.

“He is a close contact of the 26-year-old Stafford man who tested positive on Thursday night,” Dr Young said.

“Both men are now being treated in Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. We will conduct genome sequencing on the latest case to confirm they are linked.”

The second man is a friend of the first, but in a separate household.

Genomic testing yesterday confirmed the 26-year-old man had the highly contagious B117 variant and was linked to the South Brisbane cluster announced on March 12.

He had visited a number of locations across Brisbane over the past week and 18 close contacts have been identified.

Dr Young said many of the venues did not require patrons to check-in electronically.

“We are expanding our contact tracing to capture close contacts of both of these cases and will release an updated list of locations they visited,” she said.

“Most of the venues we know of so far are not required to check-in customers, meaning we are relying on people to examine the exposure sites and come forward if they have been there during the times stated.

“We really need anyone who has visited any of these venues to immediately get tested and isolate until they receive their results.”

For the latest updates regarding contact tracing, visit the Queensland Health website

The latest cases take Queensland’s total to 1443, including 71 active cases.

To manage the expected increase in demand over the weekend, Queensland Health has stood up additional testing facilities, including the Pine Rivers Assessment Clinic, the Eight Mile Plains Community Health Centre and Wynnum-Manly Community Health Centre (Gundu Pa).

* * *

Queensland Health has updated its alert for Mamma’s Italian Restaurant at 69 Redcliffe Parade, Redcliffe.

People who were at the restaurant on Sunday, March 21, between 12:30pm and 3:10pm must quarantine at home immediately for 14 days and call 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84)

They must stay quarantined even if they get a negative test until 14 days have passed since March 21.


 

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