Queensland health authorities reported three new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, all among returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.
The update takes the state’s total active caseload to 24, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in an update on social media. A total of 6438 tests were carried out in the previous 24 hours.
A health worker receives the Pfizer jab at Princess Alexandra Hospital.
The latest figures follow quarantine extensions for some people who had previously stayed at the Mercure Brisbane Hotel on North Quay after five cases emerged among returned travellers at the site.
But Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has played down the idea that the virus may have again spread through hallways at a quarantine hotel.
A man believed to have been a “super spreader” was instead thought to have infected the others – all workers from Papua New Guinea’s Ok Tedi copper mine – during a charter flight into Cairns.
State government data showed 6534 Pfizer vaccine doses were administered under the first stage of the rollout to Friday, with Queensland Health defending its slow pace on social media earlier in the week.
The first doses of the more easily administered AstraZeneca vaccine will be fast-tracked to the Torres Strait this weekend, as fears grow that the virus could spread south from PNG, where there has been a recent surge in cases.
