Two new cases send Gold Coast hospitals into lockdown, state on high alert
Gold Coast hospitals, aged care and disability facilities have been placed into lockdown after two of the cityâs residents tested positive to the COVID-19 virus.
Queenslandâs Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young has also re-introduced stricter mask mandates to Gold Coast residents as a result of the new infections, including a cross-border truckie, who lives at Gaven.
The truck driver was infectious in the Gold Coast community for three days from Saturday to Monday. Heâs the second truckie in as many days to test positive to the virus after being out in the Queensland community while infectious.
Young said the man had been in the Gold Coast suburbs of Mermaid Waters, Merrimac, Nerang, Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach, Miami, Palm Beach and Currumbin before testing positive to the virus.
âAnyone 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 on the Gold Coast whoâve been out on the Gold Coast while infectious,â Young said.
Another man in his 50s, of Biggera Waters, on the Gold Coast, has also contracted the virus and was unknowingly infectious in the community for âat least three daysâ. He was a close contact of an aviation training facility worker, who on Monday tested positive to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. That cluster stands at three, including the aviation workerâs wife.
Young said the Biggera Waters man was fully vaccinated against the virus. She said genomic sequencing had linked that cluster of the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 to cases in the US.
âThose sequences have been loaded onto our national database to see if thereâs any closer link that we can find but we know theyâre not linked to any case in Queensland,â Young said.
âWe have these brand new outbreaks happening every day. Weâre seeing every day more cases come into Queensland.â
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Asked to explain why she had not locked down the state in the wake of the latest clusters, Young said she was watching the situation âvery, very carefullyâ.
âBecause Queensland has done such a fantastic job with our last few outbreaks with wearing masks, with coming forward and getting tested ⌠Iâm prepared to wait and see if weâve got any local transmission,â she said.
âI know where all these people have got their cases. I donât have a random case in the community thatâs popped out of nowhere.
âWe have got fantastic contact tracers. Theyâve honed their skills beautifully so theyâre getting hold of all of these people and getting them into quarantine and I know people in Queensland fully understand what quarantine means now and they adhere to it
âPlus, the most important thing, Iâve steadily, every single day, seen the vaccination rate increased.â
But Young said if Queensland started experiencing large scale spread of cases, and infections that could not be linked to known clusters, she would âdefinitelyâ order another lockdown.
Victoria recorded 950 new cases overnight and seven deaths, while NSW reported 863 locally acquired cases and 15 deaths. That was a record daily number of fatalities for any state during the course of the pandemic.
Australiaâs confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus have surpassed 100,000, with just 2029 of those in Queensland.
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Queenslandâs cases make up just two per cent of the nationâs 100,912 known infections of SARS-CoV-2, despite the state having 20 per cent of the Australian population.
But the Sunshine Stateâs vaccination rates continue to lag behind most other states and territories â except Western Australia.
As debate rages about when Queensland should reopen its borders, just 45.6 per cent of the stateâs population aged 16 and older have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 64.58 per cent having received one dose.
Across Australia as a whole, 52.57 per cent of residents aged 16 and older have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and 76.68 per cent have had a single shot.
Meanwhile, Queensland Health Director-General Dr John Wakefield this week wrote to department workers warning that from November 1, those who work at, or visit, patient care settings face disciplinary action if they are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they have an exemption.
About 90,000 Queensland Health employees work in a public hospital setting.
Under the vaccine mandate, public health workers without exemptions must have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine from Friday.
They are required to upload their vaccination documentation, or if unvaccinated, apply for an exemption and advise their line manager in writing.
Those who are not compliant with the employment directive, and are waiting for an exemption request to be processed, can either take leave from this Friday or if they keep working, they must wear a mask, or a higher level of personal protective equipment, as required by their workplace.
âThese arrangements will continue to apply whilst individual case management is undertaken with supervisors and managers,â Wakefield wrote.
But after October 31, he said staff without an approved exemption would be considered as having failed to comply with a health employment direction and may be subject to discipline.
âThank you for playing your part in ensuring the safety of our staff, our patients and the community,â Wakefield wrote.
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