Virus alert: New exposure sites in Brisbane, on border after truck driver tests positive
A NSW truck driver with COVID-19 visited sites in Brisbane and southern Queensland last week, the state government says.
New technology is being used to make heavy transport safer. (Photo: AAP Image/Dan Peled)
Queensland Health has issued a public health alert after the truck driver tested positive for COVID-19 following a trip he made into the state last Wednesday and leaving on Thursday.
Exposure sites are set to be listed in Archerfield in Brisbane and Goondiwindi in southern Queensland later on Thursday.
The new exposure sites are the BP service station on Boundary Rd, Archerfield, between 8.50am and 11.10am on Thursday August 26 and the Goondiwindi BP truckstop between 5.30pm and 6.30pm on the same day.
“We are asking all Queenslanders to regularly monitor the list of exposure venues on the Queensland Health website and follow the public health advice, as more locations may appear throughout the day,” the department said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Queensland will restart hotel quarantine for residents stranded interstate from Saturday, but the program remains closed for residents of NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been under fire for her snap decision last Wednesday to pause the domestic hotel quarantine program for two weeks.
A number of Queenslanders were caught out by the move, which the government said would reduce pressure on the system, and were unable to get home from states with COVID-19 outbreaks.
Palaszczuk says enough people have completed hotel quarantine and vacated rooms to allow the program to restart.
“As of Saturday, Queensland residents can begin returning from interstate hotspots into hotel quarantine in Queensland,” she told parliament on Wednesday.
“The pause on intake has only just begun. Numbers in our quarantine hotels have only slightly eased so we can offer places to 50 as a start, but we will add more places as rooms become available.”
Queensland will continue banning arrivals from NSW, Victoria and the ACT until at least September 8.
The state’s road borders with NSW are also closed to all but essential workers who have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Ms Palaszczuk refused to reveal the cost of an 1000-bed quarantine facility being built by the state government at Wellcamp, near Toowoomba.
The centre, along with another federal-funded facility in Brisbane, will eventually replace hotel quarantine.
