Covid Queensland: Outbreak spreads to new city, restrictions extended
Queensland's Covid outbreak has spread from Brisbane after a new case was announced on Wednesday following four infections reported on Tuesday.
The new locally transmitted case is a man in his 50s who is a close contact of the state's first mystery case in 50 days — an Eatons Hill man in his 30s who works in the aviation industry and picked up the virus in Sydney .
Queensland Health said the new case lives at Biggera Waters on the Gold Coast, where he visited several locations while infectious. He is fully vaccinated.
There is also one additional case that will not be recorded in Queensland's numbers, as they were tested positive in New South Wales.
That case is a truck driver who lives in Queensland and travelled to the Gold Coast area from the 25th to the 27th of September.
"He lives in Gaven in the Gold Coast and regularly moves between the Gold Coast and Sydney, stopping along the way at a lot of communities," Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said.
"He's been tested in New South Wales and is positive, and he's been infectious in the community for three days in the Gold Coast."
Dr Young said the truck driver had been in the following suburbs while infectious: Mermaid Waters, Merrimac, Nerang, Surfers Paradise, Miami Beach, and Currumbin.
"It's very important that people check those exposure venues and follow the instructions for each venue as to whether you're a close contact, a casual contact, a low-risk contact," Dr Young said.
"But anyone in the Gold Coast today - absolutely anyone with the most slightest of symptoms - please come and get tested, because we now have two people who live in the Gold Coast who've been out while infectious.
"So that's very important. All of these are new clusters."
Mask order extended after new Covid case
The new infections have prompted Queensland Health to extend the mask order to the Gold Coast.
On Tuesday, masks were made mandatory indoors and in all public settings where social distancing isn't possible in the Moreton Bay and Brisbane local government areas.
Four new locally-acquired cases were recorded in Brisbane on Tuesday with particular concerns about a truck driver who was infectious in the city for eight days.
However, Queensland Health said on Wednesday all close contacts of the truck driver tested so far had returned negative results.
With AAP
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