Queensland has recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, as Greater Brisbane, including Ipswich, begins its first day of lockdown.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said eight of the cases were contracted via community transmission, and two were acquired overseas and are currently in hotel quarantine.
“We have 10 new cases overnight, eight of these are community acquired cases,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Six are close contacts of confirmed cases, and two are currently under investigation but we believe that they are also linked to the two people.
“Two are also overseas acquired and once again coming via Papua New Guinea.
“So we now have 78 active cases of COVID-19 in our hospitals.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the new community acquired cases had been linked to two distinct clusters.
“The good news is that these cases are linked,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We now believe that there are two distinct clusters.
“So we have a cluster linked, of course, to that PA doctor, and we have a second cluster linked to the PA nurse.”
Both clusters are the UK strain of COVID-19, but genomic sequencing indicates they are not related to each other.
Ms Palaszczuk said there had been more than 14,580 COVID-19 tests in the past 24 hours.
“This is absolutely critical,” she said.
“A lot of people in the Greater Brisbane area are at home, if you have any symptoms, now is the time to go and get tested.
“We need to rule out any further community transmission.”
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young announced new mandates for health professionals dealing with COVID-19 cases.
“As of tomorrow (Wednesday) I will mandate, as I have been saying now for several weeks to the hospitals and health services, that only people who have had their first dose of the vaccine whether it be Pfizer or AstraZeneca can work directly with confirmed cases of COVID,” Dr Young said.
It comes as more than 41,000 frontline health workers and hotel quarantine workers – accounting for 89 per cent – have received their first vaccine dose.
The Premier expects the first stage of the state’s vaccine roll out to be completed over the next 48 hours.
Visit Queensland Health’s COVID-19 hub for the latest information, including contact tracing locations.
