Children remain in lockdown during nervous wait for virus tests
Children at a Brisbane youth detention centre remain in lockdown as health authorities anxiously await coronavirus test results to determine if a staff member could be the state’s first community transmission in a month.
The Brisbane Youth Detention Centre cluster has risen to 11 cases. (Photo: ABC)
The 77-year-old supervisor at Brisbane’s Youth Detention Centre in Wacol had continued to work while infectious with COVID-19.
Health Minister Steven Miles said health authorities have tested 75 of the centre’s 127 young residents who have been isolated in their rooms since Wednesday evening.
“We have health staff monitoring their physical and mental wellbeing,” he told ABC radio on Friday.
The centre will not be taking new admissions and all face-to-face visits and court appearances have been cancelled.
Testing on the centre’s 500 staff is also expected to be completed later on Friday.
Miles said the infected worker, from Ipswich, was in a stable condition in hospital.
“I understand her symptoms were very mild,” he said.
The latest case comes after a virus scare was linked to a false positive result in southeast Queensland last month.
But Miles said the state’s Chief Health Officer was confident the case was genuine as the woman had recorded two results positive for coronavirus.
Queensland Health are conducting contact tracing to discover if the latest case has any connection to an outbreak last month linked to two Logan women who dodged quarantine after visiting Melbourne.
“That’s what we’re trying to get to the bottom of, if there is any unknown, community transmissions here,” Miles said.
The case was the only one recorded in Queensland on Thursday, with eight active infections.
-AAP
