The NRL grand final is going ahead in Brisbane, despite Queensland's latest COVID-19 scare, with a final decision about the event expected to be announced on the day.
Townsville is in place if needed as a back-up venue, but the NRL's head of football Graham Annesley said today there were no active plans to move the match north.
It comes after authorities announced four new locally acquired COVID cases had been detected in Brisbane.
The cases include two people who were infectious in the Brisbane community for several days.
The grand final decider is being played at Brisbane's Lang Park on Sunday.
ABC News: Brittney Kleyn
)Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she was not concerned about the event at this stage but would closely monitor the situation.
"Not today and we'll just see what happens over the next few days," Dr Young said.
She said she would review the situation if large numbers of cases associated with the two new clusters are detected.
She said a decision will be made on the morning of the event.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also said there were no plans to relocate the game "at this stage".
"We'll be updating the community every single day," she said.
The NRL has announced they have a contingency plan to move the decider to Townsville if needed.
'A potential spreading event'
Epidemiologist and member of the World Health Organisation's expert advisory panel in the response to COVID-19, Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, said the game could potentially be a spreading event for Queensland.
"This is a potential tipping point, it's a potential super spreading event," she told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"You never know who may attend… from an outbreak management perspective, a highly cautious management perspective, you could do several things."
AAP: Mick Tsikas
)Professor McLaws said the game could be postponed or relocated if spectators were to be given rapid COVID tests.
"You'd have to reduce the number that would go and that would be a very difficult decision," she said.
"Who do you say stays at home?
She said the Delta variant had a shorter incubation period compared to other strains.
"So let's say five days is an average incubation period, you need to ensure that you didn't see [any transmission] for 10 days," she said.
"But apparently you want this game to go ahead on the weekend, which is less than the incubation period."
Professor McLaws said it was a big decision that the authorities would have to make.
"I'm not making it, but I'm just giving you the epidemiology of outbreak management," she said.
"It doesn't take a lot to spark a fourth wave … you've got to decide what's more important."
Townsville option 'just good planning'
Mr Annesley said while a contingency plan was in place, the NRL was not actively planning to move the game to Townsville.
"We're confident that we'll get through, that the government will get on top of this minor outbreak," he said.
"Of course we have contingency plans, we've had contingencies around every round since we moved to Queensland that's just good planning, nothing more than that."
ABC News: Alice Pavlovic
)He urged ticket holders not to panic, but is also confident players from the Rabbitohs and Panthers could make a last-minute adjustment.
"One thing that our players have shown right throughout the whole season is that they're very adaptable," Mr Annesley said.
Referee Gerard Sutton said while a late change would affect his preparation, his team has also learnt to be flexible.
"I like to think that we're pretty adaptable at the end of the day, we get out there and the field will be in the same dimensions wherever we are," he said.
"The last two origin series … we've flown in and out on the day of the game, so grand final is probably on a similar level to Origin,.
"Whatever the situation is I'm pretty confident we'll turn up at kick off ready to go."
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2021-09-28 03:09:57Z
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