Queensland BAFFLED over how mystery coronavirus cluster began in Brisbane as another two people test positive including a prison officer – plunging 7000 inmates into lockdown
Queensland health officials are still battling to find the link between two growing coronavirus clusters, as an officer working at a prison training academy tests positive.
The prisoner trainer worked on Friday before returning a positive result on Wednesday, coming into contact with other trainees who have since been deployed to prisons - plunging 7,000 inmates across the state into lockdown.
'All correctional facilities in Queensland will remain on full lockdown this morning to allow for briefings and further advice from Queensland Health,' a QCS spokesperson said in a statement.
A Queensland Corrective Services Academy prison trainer has tested positive for COVID-19, plunging 7000 inmates into lockdown (pictured, a QCSA graduation ceremony)
The new case has sparked fears of further community transmission as it takes a growing cluster in the state's southeast to 12.
Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said the worker trained correctional officers, but did not work in prisons.
So far 25 close contacts of the worker, 14 recruits and 11 colleagues, have been identified, tested and quarantined.
Stage Four restrictions have been enacted in prisons stretching from Capricornia to the southeast, with all prisoners secured in their cells and movement within the facilities restricted.
Only those who develop symptoms or who have come into contact with the prison trainer will be tested.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said authorities are trying to connect a cluster in the state's southeast with an earlier one that emerged last month
The latest case brings a cluster in the state's southeast to 12, which has been linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre at Wacol
Everyone on the premises will be required to wear masks and personal visits have temporarily stopped.
Investigations are now under way as to how the latest case was contracted.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the man lived at Forest Lake, in Brisbane's south west, where a number of venues have been subject to a public health alert.
A single new case identified on Wednesday - a close contact of another known case- also resides in Forrest Lake.
A cluster in the region emerged last week linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre at Wacol.
More than 85 locations have been added to a list of places visited by infected individuals in the area, including the Forest Lake Tavern and Richlands Magistrates Courthouse.
Authorities hope further testing this week will connect the cluster to an earlier outbreak sparked by two infected women who snuck across the border from Melbourne last month.
The new case is the second to be recorded in Queensland in the past 24 hours, along with a person in hotel quarantine.
A drive-through COVID-19 testing facility is seen in Murarrie, Brisbane, on Tuesday