Queensland Health believes it has found the “missing link” in Brisbane’s first original COVID-19 cluster, as the state records no new active cases of community transmission in the past 24 hours.
Queensland detected seven new cases in its hotel quarantine, however, as well as one historic locally acquired case.
“We believe that this historical case is the missing link from that first cluster,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters on Friday.
“So that’s fantastic news.”
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said the historical case is a Princess Alexandra Hospital nurse, who is believed to have contracted the virus last month and is no longer infectious.
“So this is yet another nurse who has unfortunately, through doing nothing wrong, has contracted the infection, from a gentleman who is clearly a super spreader,” Dr Young said.
“It’s not his fault either. He was the gentleman who came from Europe and was admitted and transmitted the infection to a doctor, now he’s also transmitted it to a nurse.”
Dr Young said the nurse then, through no fault of her own, returned to her home in north Brisbane, and transmitted the virus to her partner, who then spread the infection to his group of mates.
Dr Young said the nurse’s partner got tested, “out of the blue”.
“So, due to all of those people doing what they did so effectively, we found that cluster, and we’ve got it under control.”
Dr Young added that the nurse developed no symptoms and had no idea she had been infected. She was tested as a close contact and was found to have had the virus through serology testing.
“She is definitely the missing link,” Dr Young said, explaining that the nurse is believed to have been infectious from March 10 to March 23.
“It’s an enormous relief,” she said.
Queensland Health will release new contact tracing locations linked to the nurse on its website today.
You can watch today’s full presser below.
Queensland Premier providing a COVID-19 update in Brisbane. #covid19 https://t.co/O81ZfoZW1C
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 1, 2021
There are currently 82 active cases of COVID-19 in Queensland, with a whopping 35,357 tests taken in the past 24 hours.
