Rocky horror: Qld city on alert, aged home locked down as nurse tests positive
An aged care centre has been forced into lockdown as staff, residents and the local community await advice on whether they have contracted COVID-19 from an infected nurse.
In a nightmare scenario, which could potentially result in the biggest Queensland cluster since the Sails Restaurant lunch, the woman worked alongside colleagues and with vulnerable residents for days before realising the danger.
The nurse at a state-run aged care facility in north Rockhampton was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Thursday night. She is believed to have been infected on a recent trip to Brisbane and subsequently worked, and visited other parts of Rockhampton, while contagious.
Rockhampton, a city of more than 80,000 people, was thought to be clear of any active cases. However, the nurse had symptoms from May 5 and could have been spreading the virus days earlier, with mass testing now under way.
Ahead of statewide restrictions being eased tonight, Health Minister Steven Miles warned that “even after cities have long periods of time without active cases things can turn very, very quickly”.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the Rockhampton case came “out of nowhere” and prompted a lockdown of the centre, local health alert and the dispatch of additional resources to central Queensland.
There will be contact-tracing and testing for 180 staff who worked with the nurse and up to 115 centre residents, while the broader community has been urged to watch for potential symptoms and not hesitate to be tested.
Young said the fact the woman worked, and was “out and about in the community” while contagious, was “very, very concerning”. She may face disciplinary action for her failure to remain home while sick and her movements are being investigated.
Queensland Health has to determine how many people now need to be placed into quarantine for 14 days as a precaution.
“That is a very important lesson for all of us across the state: we have not seen the end of this virus yet,” Young said.
The new case, and a known case transferred from Western Australia, took Queensland’s total to 1,054 as of Friday morning, with 17 of those active.
The biggest cluster outside of returning cruise ship passengers has been the Sails Restaurant lunch at Noosa, which resulted in 28 cases. Five cases in Cairns were linked to a staffing at a hospital pathology laboratory, however Queensland has not experienced the same level of hospital and aged care infections as other states.
