Brisbane quarantine hotel evacuated as six cases are linked to cluster

Health officials and police are investigating how a casual cleaner, working in the Hotel Grand Chancellor where international arrivals are in quarantine, become infected with the UK strain.

The case triggered a three-day lockdown of Greater Brisbane, affecting about 2.4 million people, that was lifted at 6pm on Monday although restrictions on social gatherings and rules on wearing masks remain in place.

Ms Palaszczuk said the remaining 129 guests at the Hotel Grand Chancellor would be moved to other hotels on Thursday and tested.

The 226 people who worked in the hotel since December 30 would be contacted and would go into quarantine and get tested.

The 250 quarantined guests who have left the hotel since December 30 would be contacted and they would be quarantined and tested.

“It is of national concern, not just to Queensland, but everywhere else,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“So the first good step is that the number of arrivals have been decreased, but also … the fact that all of these six people were on the 7th floor.”

Ms Palaszczuk said she was “concerned” about the cluster after genomic testing revealed they were all linked, and would speak with her counterparts in other states on Wednesday morning.

“These are the UK traveller and his partner, the hotel cleaner and her partner, and the man and his daughter from Lebanon who we told you about yesterday,” she said.

“All six have a connection to the Grand Chancellor hotel. Both groups of these overseas arrivals stayed on the same floor of the hotel at different times but not in neighbouring rooms.

“There is no need for the public to be concerned, but we are going to take some immediate actions as a precaution.”

Only two of the six cases – the cleaner and her partner – have been out in the community, a development that promoted Brisbane’s snap three-day lockdown last weekend.

The cleaner who worked at the hotel contracted the highly infectious UK COVID-19 strain last week, and police are combing through four days of CCTV footage to pinpoint the moment of transmission.

Dr Young said the cleaner contracted the virus from a returned traveller from the UK, but was not yet sure how.

“I think the safest thing to do is to move all of the guests out of that hotel to other hotels immediately,” she said.

“All of those 129 remaining people in that hotel will move, will get tested and will stay in quarantine for 14 days unless we find out what the link is.”

Geoff Crooks returned from the United States and had spent 14 days in the Hotel Grand Chancellor.

Mr Crooks’ brother died while he was in quarantine and the funeral was set for Thursday.

He was due to be released at 12.01am on Wednesday, but said he got a knock on his hotel room door at 11pm on Tuesday night from two police officers.

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“We [Mr Crooks and his wife] were handed two more forms, which were quarantine directions saying you may be held for another two weeks and your new release date is January 26,” he said.

“Apparently there is a big investigation going on and the hotel might shut down and all the police and quarantine workers could spend two weeks in quarantine themselves.

“We’re very very angry … I’ve had four negative tests in 25 days, how many times do I need to test negative before they accept I’m negative?

“My wife is devastated, our girls were here to pick us up this morning, they took annual leave from work especially to spend time with us because we have been away for a year.”