‘Encouraging news’: Premier gives update on second day of Townsville and southeast lockdown

COVID-19

Karlie Brady

Journalist

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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has provided an update on the state’s COVID-19 situation. Image: Facebook.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has provided an update on the state’s COVID-19 situation on the second day of a three-day lockdown of Townsville and the southeast.

Queensland has recorded two new locally acquired cases overnight, neither was in the Far North nor linked to the teenager who visited Magnetic Island while carrying the Delta variant.

"Of the two locally acquired cases, one is a contact of the Portuguese restaurant cluster and is already in quarantine, so very good news there. The second is a worker at the Brisbane International Airport," Ms Palaszczuk said.

“She has been to very limited places around her local area.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the state hit new testing and vaccination records over the last reporting period with 29,990 tests and 18,162 vaccines administered by Queensland Health.

“The fact that we have had large numbers of testing plus we are not seeing more wide-scale community cases is very very encouraging.

Townsville and the southeast will remain in lockdown until at least 6:00pm Friday.

"I thank Queenslanders but we're not out of the woods yet, we've got another 24 hours to see what happens over the next 24 hours and will update you tomorrow in relation to whether or not we can lockdown, but it is very encouraging news at this stage."

CHO Dr Jeannette Young also said she was encouraged the lockdown would be lifted; however, said it is still early.

“These three days that we are in lockdown at the moment gives us the opportunity to make sure we have found everyone, and we have got them in quarantine,” she said.

“It’s too early to be confident that we won’t have more cases.”

Dr Young also said today's second new local case probably acquired her infection at work at the international airport.

"She works at the check-in counter for Qatar airlines, which means she would be checking in not only the passengers, but she would be involved with the crew," Dr Young said.

"This lady in her 30s became symptomatic on June 27, so that means her infectious period goes back to last Friday.

"We are speaking to her at the moment to get all of her contact tracing achieved, she does have another person who lives in the same household who we are urgently testing close contacts."

There were three locally acquired cases recorded yesterday, all linked to existing cases, including the brother of the 19-year-old worker from Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital who holidayed on Magnetic Island last week.

Everyone is encouraged to continually check the list of exposure sites which are updated regularly. The list can be found here.

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