TESTING TIMES
PATIENTS FLOOD IN AFTER COMMUNITY CASES SCANDAL
PEOPLE are rushing to get tested for COVID-19 on the Gold Coast after two South East Queensland women who caught it allegedly lied at the border about where they had been after partying in virus-stricken Melbourne. Olivia Winnie Muranga (below, left) and Diana Lasu (right) who had travelled to Victoria tested positive on return. A third woman, a sister of one of the 19year-old pair, has also tested positive.
Three more new cases unrelated to the trio were also confirmed on Thursday in Queensland. It comes as clinics report a spike in testing and Chief Medical Officer Jeannette Young warns it’s a “risky time for Queensland”.
CORONAVIRUS tests have spiked at Gold Coast clinics after two young southeast Queensland women who caught it allegedly lied about partying in virus-stricken Melbourne and where they had been on return.
Olivia Winnie Muranga and Diana Lasu tested positive, as has a third woman, the sister of one of the pair, both 19, who travelled to Victoria.
Three more new cases unrelated to the trio were also confirmed on Thursday in Queensland – a couple who self-isolated after eating at The Apollo in Sydney and a man in his 20s flying back from the US.
It comes as Victoria recorded a worrying new tally of 723 cases and a record 13 deaths. NSW recorded 18 new cases.
Primary Health Network clinics in the northern corridor of the Gold Coast have reported a 25 per cent increase in testing after the Muranga and Lasu cases – the state’s first outside quarantine since May – emerged in Logan.
It is understood numbers have also jumped in state-run fever clinics at Gold Coast hospitals. Long queues were at the Gold Coast University Hospital clinic on Thursday.
Across the state, 6866 people were tested for the virus in the 24-hour period after the Logan cases were made public by the State Government.
Chief Medical Officer Jeannette Young said: “This is an increasingly risky time for Queensland. The last two days we’ve had six new cases. It’s been a long time in Queensland since we’ve had those sort of numbers,” she said.
Dr Young did not rule out new restrictions but said they were not needed yet.
“Not at this stage, it will depend on the results we get over the next 24 or 48 hours whether anything like that is required,” she said.
Dr Young pleaded with people to download Federal Government’s COVIDSafe app, maintain social distancing and good hand hygiene and steer clear of hot spots.
The Gold Coast has one active case of the virus and 240 people are under active selfquarantine due to contact with known cases or awaiting results.
Hope Island Medical clinic’s Dr Andrew Weissenberger said they saw record numbers on Wednesday and surpassed it again on Thursday.
“We started seeing an increase a week or two ago because of seasonal respiratory viruses but in the last couple of days with what has happened at Logan there has been a dramatic jump.”
Dr Weissenberger said they had also seen patients from as far as South Brisbane and Logan because of demand elsewhere.
“Normally we have been able to offer on the day appointments into the afternoon but we still have several hours to go and have been fully booked – that hasn’t happened before.”
The doctor said he felt encouraged to see so many people happy to get tested.
“COVID has been with us for a little while so it is easy to become complacent but I think the Logan case is a wake-up call. This virus is ever present and we need to be on alert testing so we can jump on it as soon as it arrives.”
Dr Sonu Haikerwal who runs Haan Health Medical
Centre and the Upper Coomera respiratory clinic said testing demand had increased significantly but was a must for anyone with symptoms.
“You get tested to not just protect yourselves, but the community. It’s free and it’s convenient with all the respiratory clinics that have been set up,” he said.
“We have a duty of care towards each other. It’s the only way to control this very uncertain dangerous situation.
“Even if you think it’s your usual cold or asthma please get checked, tested.”
Gold Coast Health has urged people seeking tests to not bring family and friends.
It comes as the State Government prepares to shut Sydneysiders out of the state from Saturday at 1am under tougher border restrictions.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queenslanders should avoid locations where social distancing was not being
YOU GET TESTED TO NOT JUST PROTECT YOURSELVES, BUT THE COMMUNITY.
DR SONU HAIKERWAL
practised. “If you go to a shopping centre and you see people not social distancing you should leave,” she said.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles hoped extensive testing would “ensure we don’t have community transmission”.
Queensland has now recorded 1082 cases with 11 active and five in hospital. 1065 people have recovered and six people have died.