Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young

September 5, 2021

A Qantas pilot who lives on a cattle property “out towards Kingaroy” has tested positive to COVID-19.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said on Sunday morning authorities did not know yet where the man had picked up the virus, but his wife and two children had already tested negative.

“That’s very encouraging,” she said.

Dr Young said the man, who lives on “quite an isolated property”, had travelled from his home to Brisbane where he visited his mother before heading to Brisbane Airport where he flew to Hong Kong.

He then flew back from Hong Kong into Melbourne, where he tested positive to COVID-19.

Dr Young said authorities were awaiting a genome sequence result from Victoria to see if he had caught the disease in NSW or Hong Kong.

His mother has been tested, but authorities are still awaiting the results.

Dr Young said the man also works part-time as a freight driver and had driven a truck to Tamworth in NSW on August 20.

“So we are trying to work out whether he acquired it in Tamworth … or whether he acquired it in Hong Kong because that will change the risk profile,” Dr Young said.

Dr Young said she felt “pretty comfortable” because the man had stayed at home during his infectious period, and both he and his wife were fully vaccinated.

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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there were now 16 active cases in Queensland.

The latest confirmed locally acquired case is the mother of the four-year-old child from the Logan/Beenleigh area announced on Friday.

The woman twice tested negative to the disease before testing positive on Saturday, and was already in quarantine.

The Premier said 52.7 per cent of eligible Queenslanders have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 34.14 per cent were fully vaccinated.

She said now was the “window of opportunity” for Queenslanders to get vaccinated.

“It is absolutely imperative that you get vaccinated because this virus is going to pop up at sometime in the near future,” she said.

“This is basically our window to get this done.

“It is going to protect yourself, protect your family and protect your community.”

She urged people not to wait.

“We are going to eventually see more cases here and we really need to see everybody get vaccinated,” she said.

“I cannot stress (enough) to Queenslanders the urgency to get vaccinated.”

[UPDATED]


 

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