A Queensland quarantine hotel has gone into lockdown after two residents tested positive with investigations underway to see if there was any transmission.
Both case were already known and recorded by Queensland Health but it was only discovered on Sunday that one of them could have “potentially” caught it from the other while in hotel quarantine.
They were both staying at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane, which will go into a 72-hour lockdown while authorities investigate if COVID-19 spread between them while they were staying at the hotel rather than them both separately catching it overseas and bringing it in.
One of the cases is a patient at the Brisbane’s Princess Alexandria Hospital, who was treated by a doctor who later tested positive to COVID-19, deputy chief health officer Sonya Bennett on Sunday.
The patient was staying on the same floor of the Hotel Grand Chancellor while in quarantine as another case, and authorities will investigate if there could have been transmission between the two while the hotel is in lockdown.
The other case was announced on Saturday but it was only learned on Sunday that genomic sequencing suggested the two COVID-19 cases could be linked.
The genomic information suggested the “potential” that one of them caught COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine, Dr Bennett said.
The case announced on Saturday tested positive on Day 12 of their stay which was when they were taken to hospital.
Dr Bennett said the case testing positive later in their stay was “a little bit unusual” but it was not unheard of for COVID-19 to have a late inoculation period.
Ms Bennett said she wanted to make clear it was not linked to a previous cluster at the same hotel.
She said the hotel would go into a three-day lockdown while the “potential” links between the doctor, the patient, and the third COVID-19 case were investigated.
“We want to rule out that there has been any transmission at all in the hotel,” she said.
“It’s one of a number of possible options to explain the case identified yesterday.”
While the hotel was in its 72-hour lockdown no more residents would be accepted, Ms Bennett said.
“(It will) not accept any more residents, not discharging any return travellers for the next 72 hours until we understand better the context of that event,” she said.
Meanwhile, Queensland recorded one new case of COVID-19 on Sunday but authorities do not believe it is linked to a doctor who tested positive while working at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandria Hospital.
The case is “likely historic” which was “really good news”, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a press conference.
A historic case is a person who previously caught COVID-19 and recovered, with the virus still showing up during testing without the person being infectious.
The case announced Sunday is in the community but with no risk of infecting others due to the infectious period having passed, it is understood.
The Premier said there were 36 active cases in the state.
More than 5000 Queenslanders were tested in the past 24 hours.
Contact tracing is complete for a doctor who tested positive for COVID-19 who worked at the Princess Alexandria Hospital at Woolloongabba on Brisbane's southside, Ms Palaszczuk said.
She said 238 community contacts had been identified and testing was underway.
At the Princess Alexandria Hospital 61 staff and seven patients have been tested because of their link to the doctor.
Three close contacts had returned negative tests.
“Contact tracers are going through where the doctor went in the hospital, they are identifying those people, and we should have more results of their tests tomorrow,” she said.
It was revealed on Sunday the doctor was not attached to a particular ward in the hospital but moved throughout responding to wherever she was needed.
She had worked with a COVID-positive patient and genomic testing was underway to see if that patient and the doctor’s infections could be linked with certainty, Ms Bennett said.
She said there was a “partial” link between the COVID-positive healthcare worker and one of the cases she assessed.
“Genomic sequencing hasn’t quite confirmed the link,” she said.
“There wasn’t enough virus.
“What the laboratory was able to do was what we call partially sequence, which indicates there is a link between the healthcare worker and one of the patients she assessed.”
The Princess Alexandria Hospital was put into lockdown on Friday after it was discovered the doctor was COVID-positive.
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2021-03-14 01:18:45Z
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