Anxious wait for teen tests but no cause for infection ‘hysteria’
Queensland health authorities are waiting on coronavirus test results from two teens arrested after allegedly lying about being in COVID-19 hotspot Sydney.
Queensland Police Superintendent Craig Hawkins has dmsissed social media 'hysteria' about a possible Susnhine Cost COVID-19 outbreak.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, arrived on a train from Sydney to Brisbane on Friday before the border closed. The pair then travelled to the Sunshine Coast.
Officers tracked them down at a Noosa shopping centre and took them into custody on Monday so health officials could test them for COVID-19.
The pair are in mandatory quarantine and their results are due on Tuesday.
Superintendent Craig Hawkins said the pair had not been completely honest with where they had been but dismissed social media “hysteria” over fears they could be spreading the virus.
“Certainly there is no need to panic in regards to an outbreak of COVID-19 on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.
Hawkins said the teens had been tested for COVID-19 and he expected those results to come back soon.
“I’m hopeful we’ll see that today and I suspect that Queensland Health will put a priority on the testing,” he said.
“They’ll stay in the quarantine hotel until we get those test results.”
Any charges for the pair will be considered through the youth justice system.
“There are a couple of things here we have to deal with, the fact they’ve come through the border point without being honest,” he said.
“[They’ve] been in Queensland for a few days.”
The breach comes after border communities were warned exemptions allowing them to cross over will end if coronavirus spreads north from NSW.
Despite the potential threat, the state’s aged care homes have been permitted to reopen to visitors.
It follows two weeks of high alert for an outbreak linked to two teens who dodged quarantine.
Health officials are now confident the women did not spread COVID-19 after returning from Melbourne in July and moving around the community for a week.
“Today was the very important day,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Monday, referring to the end of the two-week period since police placed the women in isolation.
Despite the potential threat, the state’s aged care homes have been permitted to reopen to visitors.
“Aged care restrictions will be lifted, which I know means a lot to the families, especially over the last week or so when they have not been able to see their loved ones,” Palaszczuk said.
One new case of the virus was diagnosed overnight from Sunday, a man in mandatory hotel quarantine who recently returned from overseas.
-AAP
