State’s perfect run ends after 10 days with quarantine positive test
Queensland has broken a 10-day sequence of no new virus cases after a returning Defence Force personnel tested positive to COVID-19 while in quarantine.
Queensland has returned its first positive test in 10 days. (Photo: ABC News: Stefan Lowe)
It was the only positive test overnight after 2700 tests were conducted on Monday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
The news comes as Palaszczuk said accommodation bookings were on par with the same time last year ahead of the borders reopening on Friday in time for the second week of NSW school holidays.
“My information is that Gold Coast bookings are basically the same as this time last year,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
She warned of long delays at border crossings, urging travellers to factor that into their plans.
Before the new case was announced, Queensland’s only active coronavirus case was an octogenarian who has spent almost four months in hospital battling the illness
The 81-year-old man’s heroic fight, which has included three months in intensive care, has even earned him a mention in state Parliament.
He’s recovering in Gold Coast University Hospital where he was transferred out of ICU on June 18.
“After almost three months in ICU with COVID-19-related pneumonia, an 81-year-old man was yesterday moved out of intensive care,” Health Minister Steven Miles told Parliament last month.
Two probable coronavirus cases are being investigated in the Albury area as NSW prepares to close its border with Victoria over the COVID-19 outbreak in parts of Melbourne.
NSW Health on Monday evening said the two cases had returned positive results on preliminary testing in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
The department on Tuesday said the two cases were undergoing further testing but had not yet been included in the state’s confirmed case load.
One suspected case had recently been to Melbourne but returned before hotspot travel restrictions came into force.
NSW Health is setting up a pop-up clinic in Albury from Tuesday and is urging residents in the area with even mild symptoms to get tested.
NSW reported seven new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday from 9746 tests, including a man who tested negative in hotel quarantine before returning home to Newcastle on Sunday and developing respiratory symptoms. He and his close contacts have been placed into isolation.
The other six cases were in travellers in hotel quarantine.
-AAP
