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Alarming detail after Qantas flight attendant tests positive for Covid

A Qantas flight attendant, who tested positive with COVID-19, was infectious while on board six flights across Queensland.

The woman in her 30s tested positive with the Delta strain on Wednesday after crewing multiple flights between Brisbane, Gladstone, Longreach and Hervey Bay between July 11 and 13.

It’s understood she began showing symptoms on July 13 but waited over a week to get tested for coronavirus.

Qantas flights on July 11 with Covid exposure:

  • Brisbane-Longreach QF2534

  • Longreach-Brisbane QF2535

  • Brisbane-Gladstone QF2346

Qantas flights on July 12 with Covid exposure:

  • Gladstone-Brisbane QF2331

  • Brisbane-Hervey Bay QF2374

  • Hervey Bay-Brisbane QF 2375

Stock image of Qantas planes at the domestic terminal in Sydney. Source: AAP
During her infectious period, the woman crewed six flights between Brisbane, Longreach, Hervey Bay and Gladstone. Source: AAP

Urgent plea to Qantas passengers to get tested

Deputy Queensland Premier Steven Miles issued an urgent warning to passengers on those flights.

"It is absolutely urgent that we get every passenger on those flights tested as soon as possible, Queensland Health is standing up testing capacity in those locations,” Mr Miles said.

The woman lives in the northern Brisbane suburb of Banyo. It’s unknown where she was infectious while in Brisbane but she did stay the night at the Mercure Hotel in Gladstone on July 11.

Authorities investigating whether virus spread from Sydney

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said it’s unclear where the woman picked up the virus, but she has previously travelled to New South Wales.

"We'll then have to work that through, where else the risk has happened," she said.

"But it's the same as always, please anyone with any symptoms at all, any symptoms at all, anywhere in the state of Queensland come forward and immediately get tested, so we can find people early. "

The positive case comes just hours after Queensland shut its border to NSW, where long queues of traffic have formed.

While no one has tested positive in NSW in areas close to the Queensland border, a service station at Chinderah, about 15km away, was declared as an exposure site earlier this week.

Scenes on the Pacific Motorway at the Queensland and New South Wales border on the Gold Coast. Source: AAP
Scenes on the Pacific Motorway at the Queensland and New South Wales border on the Gold Coast. Source: AAP

NSW Health also raised concerns on Thursday night about COVID-19 fragments in waste water in Byron Bay, about an hour from the Queensland border.

"We'll be monitoring that very, very closely, it just underlines how critical it is that people in that border zone only travel for those essential reasons that were outlined," Mr Miles said.

There are currently 25 active COVID cases in Queensland.

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