Queensland records three new Covid cases including a 12-year-old and a fully-vaccinated airport worker - forcing restrictions to be extended for a week
Queensland is bracing after three new cases of locally aquired Covid were reported on Thursday morning, including a 12-year-old boy and a fully vaccinated airport worker.
The new cases mean the state's mask mandate will extended another week in the south-east.
One case was a 12-year-old boy who completed quarantine in Sydney and flew into Brisbane on QF544 on July 9.
The 12-year-old boy's father, who did not travel to the US, had also now tested positive.
Additionally, a fully vaccinated international airport worker had tested positive.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the mask mandate would continue for another week for 11 LGAs, including Brisbane City Council, Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim.
Restrictions would be eased for Townsville.
A fully vaccinated worker at Brisbane International Airport had tested positive, it was announced on Thursday morning
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the mask mandate would continue for another week for 11 LGAs in south-east Queensland as a result of the new cases
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young hoped genome sequencing would establish how the 12-year-old boy acquired the virus later on Thursday.
The boy had travelled with his mother to Los Angeles for three months, returning to Sydney on June 21 and entering hotel quarantine.
He and his mother, from Newport in Brisbane, then travelled to Queensland on Qantas flight 544 on July 9.
The boy become unwell the evening he arrived back in Brisbane and attended the Aspley Medical Centre and an adjacent pharmacy on July 13, and was tested the same day.
'That result came back late yesterday,' Dr Young said. 'We then have tested his parents. His mother has tested negative at this stage, but she is now in hospital with her son and the father has tested positive.
'He did go to the airport to pick up his son and his partner.'
The father worked while infectious at a financial services firm at Maroochydore.
'We will be contact tracing there,' Dr Young said. 'We don't believe that either the child, their mother or the father have been to my other exposure venues, but of course we are going through and talking to all three at the moment to see where else they might have been.'
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young expressed concern about an airport employee who worked for three days while infectious at Thursday's Covid update
Dr Young expressed concern about the airport worker who had tested positive.
'They have been working at the airport for three days while infectious,' she said. 'Nothing to do with them. They did absolutely the right thing and they were vaccinated.
'But we now have to see where they have been working, who they have come into contact with.'
The woman from Tarragindi had been vaccinated with Pfizer and became unwell last Tuesday evening.
Dr Young said the woman was deemed infectious from Sunday afternoon while she was at work at Brisbane International airport from 6pm through to 11:30pm.
She visited a local Woolworths on Monday and a Chemist Warehouse on Wednesday before being tested.
Club Services Ipswich was listed on Wednesday night as Queensland announced seven new exposure sites
Passengers arriving at Brisbane International Airport which was listed as an exposure site on Wednesday evening
Ms Palaszczuk warned Queenslanders about travelling to Victoria after new clusters emerged in the state.
Queensland Health listed seven new coronavirus exposure sites in Brisbane on Wednesday evening after being tipped off by an unnamed country that a Covid-positive person had been moving around the city while infected.
A public health alert was issued for new sites at North Ipswich, Inala and at the Brisbane Airport.
'Queensland Health has been notified by another country that a positive COVID-19 case detected overseas had been in the community prior to departure,' the department said in an alert last night.
The new sites identified on Wednesday included Kmart, Vodaphone, Telstra and JB Hi-Fi outlets at the Riverlink shopping centre in North Ipswich between about 12.24pm and 1.10pm on Friday, July 9.
The alert also listed the Brisbane Airport international terminal 'Level 3 departures, toilets in hallway near newsagency' on the same day, between 9.45pm and 10.15pm.
Club Services Ipswich between 1.15pm and 2.15pm that day, and Chac's Grill at Inala between 7pm and 8pm that same evening were also listed.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Queensland government said it would keep the NSW border open, saying the Greater Sydney lockdown was containing the city's COVID-19 outbreak.