Authorities ‘hopeful’ virus cluster contained, Victoria eases travel

The Chief Health Officer said she was “enormously grateful” to the cleaner from the hotel who caught the virus and went to a number of locations while infectious, for coming forward and co-operating with the health response.

“She was the first case in that cluster, and we found her, due to her,” Dr Young said.

“That’s what I always want to happen is to find the first case in a cluster, because we can act quickly and close things down and then hopefully at the end we can say we had a cluster with six cases.”

Greater Brisbane went into a hard lockdown for three days ending on the evening of Monday January 11, and has since opened up slightly, although gathering restrictions and a mask mandate are still in place.

The measures will remain in force until January 22, after which if there are no more community transmission cases the restrictions are expected to be eased further.

Victorian health authorities reacted positively to the news on Saturday, announcing the restrictions they had placed on travel from greater Brisbane would be eased.

From 6pm Saturday, greater Brisbane – the council areas of Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Logan and Ipswich, was downgraded from a red zone to an orange zone under Victoria’s traffic light system.

It means people from the area can travel into Victoria but only need to quarantine until they get a negative test result.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said the situation in Greater Brisbane was “looking good”.

“There has really been no community transmission beyond the cleaner and her partner,” he told reporters on Saturday.

“There has been extensive testing of the many close contacts of those who had already left hotel quarantine.”

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There has been no change in the border arrangements in either direction between New South Wales and Queensland, while Tasmania said on Saturday it would review the situation on Monday.

In addition to benefiting travellers stranded in Brisbane, the good result meant dozens of people who had been facing another 14 days of hotel quarantine were also released at 6:00pm on Saturday.

Dr Young said the ongoing investigation of the cluster of six cases, linked to the seventh flood of the Grand Chancellor, had narrowed the window of dates of concern.

That meant a number of people – about 30 – who had been due to be released over the last week but who were instead evacuated from the Grand Chancellor to the nearby Westin hotel and told they’d have to do another 14-days of quarantine were instead allowed to leave.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the 14-day clock for people had gone back to their original count rather than the new count, meaning a number of people would also be released in the coming days.

“Those who are close contacts of the cleaner in the community and her partner will still need to complete their 14 days, and anyone else who was in the Grand Chancellor who has moved over to the Westin, who is still in their original 14-day quarantine period, will continue that 14-day quarantine period,” Ms D’Ath said.