A close contact of the Brisbane Covid case hosted a party with 25 guests after he was told to isolate by health authorities – before testing positive to the virus.
Queensland recorded the second local infection on Saturday, a day after a 26-year-old tradie tested positive to the virus.
Health authorities later revealed the second man, also aged in his 20s, threw a party despite being identified as a close contact and waiting for his Covid test results.
‘More locations may be added after it was revealed the Strathpine man hosted a gathering of around 25 people at his home between being instructed to isolate and getting his positive test results,’ Queensland Health said in a release on Saturday night.
The partygoers have been ordered to self-isolate.
Officials announced on Friday a landscaper from Stafford in the city’s north tested positive to the highly contagious UK strain of Covid, sparking exposure alerts for venues including a busy Westfield shopping centre.
Genomic sequencing shows the 26-year-old’s case is linked to the strain which infected a doctor at the Princess Alexandra Hospital two weeks ago – but officials have no idea how it jumped between the two, who are not known to have ever met.
A Bunnings, Dan Murphy’s and Hungry Jacks have now been added to Brisbane’s growing hotspot list following the second local case on Saturday.
Crowds on an escalator at Carindale Shopping Centre in Brisbane – one of the venues in the city listed as potential exposure sites to Covid-19
Shinobi Ramen Noodle shop at Westfield shopping centre, Carindale, Brisbane, is one of the new Covid hotspots from 12 noon to 2.16pm on March 20
The 26-year-old man visited numerous venues across Brisbane since Friday March 19.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Saturday said health officials were ‘concerned’ about people who were at a busy shopping centre while the 26-year-old was also there.
She repeated urgent calls for anyone who was in any part of Westfield Carindale shopping centre from 12 noon to 2.16pm on Saturday, March 20, to immediately isolate and get tested.
‘The next two days are going to be critical for us,’ Ms Palaszczuk said.
‘We would like to rule out every single possibility here. The sooner that everyone [gets tested] the better we will be.’
The man also went to Mamma’s Italian Restaurant, Redcliffe, on March 21 from 12.40pm to 3.10pm for lunch – with those also there considered high risk of exposure.
Anyone who visited those sites must immediately get tested regardless of whether they have symptoms, and isolate until results are received.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has closed aged care centres, hospitals and prisons to visitors in Brisbane following a case of coronavirus outside hotel quarantine (pictured, testing in February)
While at Westfield Carindale the man also visited Fresh Sensations, Harris Scarfe and Robins Kitchen and Go Vita.
KFC’s drive-thru at Everton Park has also been added to the list of low-risk venues for anybody there on Monday March 22 for the five minutes from 7.55pm to 8pm.
The Queensland Premier repeated that the new case was one of 18 close contacts of the landscaper who are in the process of being tested.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said cafes and restaurants were high risk because of the extended amount of time at the locations – adding the Redcliffe restaurant was of particular concern.
Some other states have quickly imposed restrictions on travel from Queensland (pictured: people arriving in Brisbane from Sydney in December)
‘What we have learnt in the last 24 hours is that this gentleman had been at the restaurant for almost three hours,’ she said.
The Premier added Saturday’s case had been specifically visited by the landscaper.
‘We are not seeing large scale community transmission, this is a close contact.’
She also revealed she will write to the Prime Minister to halve the number of international arrivals in Queensland from 1,300 to around 700 as contact tracers try to get ahead of the latest outbreak.
‘We are seeing large numbers of positive cases from overseas, everyday we are seeing four or five cases in returned travelers,’ she said.
Scott Morrison said on Saturday he is confident in Queensland’s ‘strong’ contact tracing system.
The landscaper while infectious had visited venues across Brisbane including a Bunnings in his own suburb of Stafford (pictured)
The KFC drive-thru at Everton Park, Brisbane has been put on the hotspot list for only 5 minutes from 7.55pm to 8pm on March 22
The Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) said she would write to Scott Morrison and ask him to halve the number of international arrivals in Queensland
Some other Australian states have already responded to the discovery of the highly contagious strain in Queensland by reintroducing travel restrictions.
New South Wales has shut its border to anyone who has been to the exposure sites listed by Queensland Health and if already in the state they are required to get tested and self-isolate.
Tasmania has also closed their border to anyone who has been to the listed exposure sites within 14 days of wanting to travel to the state.
Victoria has designated the Brisbane and Moreton regions as an ‘orange zone’ requiring those wanting to travel to get a permit and a Covid test.
In Western Australia, anyone who has arrived from Queensland since March 20 or who has been to the hotspot locations in the last 14 days must self-isolate and get tested.
Down in New South Wales, travellers who have been to any of the listed exposure venues must get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Kmart in Carindale Westfield, Brisbane, has been added to the list of hotspots as WA imposes new restrictions of immediate quarantine for any traveller exposed during the alert times
QUEENSLAND VENUES ON ALERT
Anyone who has been to the following venues in the specified time frames must get tested regardless of whether they have symptoms and isolate immediately until they receive a negative result:
March 20, 12 noon to 2.16pm: every part of Westfield Carindale Shopping Centre at the alert time is now HIGH RISK
March 20, 12 noon to 2.16pm: Westfield Carindale. Shops include: Shinobi Ramen Noodle Shop, Fresh Sensations, Go Vita, Robins kitchen, Harris Scarfe and Kmart
March 20, 2.45pm to 3.45pm: Market Organics (store only), Newmarket
March 20, 8pm: Baskin and Robbins, Everton Park
March 21, 10.30am to 10.46am: Genki Market, Alderley
March 21, 12.40pm to 3.10pm: Mamma’s Italian Restaurant, Redcliffe – HIGH RISK
March 22, 12.20 to 12.25pm: Guzman and Gomez, Stafford
March 22, 12.40 to 12.50pm: Bunnings, Stafford
March 25, 8.30am to 8.45am: Aldi, Stafford
March 25, 11.15am to 11.40am: Nundah Respiratory Clinic, Nundah
Low risk venues:
March 21, 9.50am to 10.20am: Gasworks Plaza, Newstead
March 22, 7.55pm to 8pm: KFC drive-thru, Everton Park
An Aldi supermarket in Stafford, north Brisbane visited by the city’s positive Covid-19 case
