Rush for tests as panic hits

LONG lines of cars snaked outside testing sites on the Sunshine Coast after an infected couple from Melbourne ignited a Covid-19 scare.

One new local case was detected in the state overnight yesterday, the husband of the 44-year-old Melbourne woman who tested positive on the Sunshine Coast on Thursday, almost a week after she first developed symptoms on June 3.

They are both in quarantine at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said 17 close contacts had been identified, two of whom were family members the couple stayed with in Caloundra. The other 15 were at venues at the same time as the couple as they travelled into the state. “Of the 17 immediate close contacts, three have tested negative already, we’ve got those results,” Dr Young said.

“But we need to continue all of that testing.”

Dr Young said it appeared as though the couple were at the end of their illness, which meant the risk was lower than initially feared.

Police are investigating how the couple came to enter the state, as the border was closed to Victorians unless they had an exemption.

The pair left Victoria on June 1, four days into Victoria’s lockdown, and travelled through regional NSW before crossing into Queensland at the Goondiwindi border.

All three states have scrambled to track the pair’s movements and test anyone who came into contact with them.

There were six new cases of Covid-19 detected in hotel quarantine as of Thursday morning.

Victoria recorded four new local cases on Thursday ahead of its two-week lockdown ending. There were 78 active cases and 180 exposure sites across the state. The lockdown ended overnight, but harsh Covid-19 measures will remain.