Timeline of how COVID-19 spread in Queensland

Brisbane Times takes a look back at how the virus spread through Queensland, and some of the state’s near misses.

January 2020

January 9: The World Health Organisation releases a statement “regarding cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan”. The “WHO does not recommend any specific measures for travellers”.

January 11: China reports the first death.

January 21: A Queensland man who visited family near Wuhan is the first person tested and quarantined for COVID-19 in Australia. He returns a negative swab.

January 25: Australia’s first confirmed case, a man who had flown to Melbourne.

January 28: A Chinese man tests positive for the virus on the Gold Coast, and is Queensland’s first confirmed case. At this stage there are four confirmed coronavirus cases in NSW and two in Victoria.

January 29: Queensland declares a public health emergency as the Chinese women’s soccer team is put into hotel quarantine in Brisbane.

January 30: A 42-year-old Chinese woman becomes Queensland’s second case.

January 31: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk accuses the federal government of withholding vital information about the coronavirus outbreak.

February

February 1: Queensland Health begins to isolate school students and boarders arriving back from China.

February 4: An eight-year-old boy becomes the first child to test positive in Queensland. He is part of the Wuhan tour group visiting the Gold Coast. He is released from isolation 16 days later, making him the first person in the state to recover from the virus.

February 6: Emergency laws rushed through Parliament give Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young powers to put people into quarantine against their will and force others to be tested.

February 11: The World Health Organisation announces the coronavirus strain will be named SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes will be COVID-19.

February 26: Former treasurer Jackie Trad says the pandemic might cost the Queensland economy up to $1 billion.

March

March 1: Western Australian tourism pioneer James Kwan is the first Australian to die from the new coronavirus.

March 3: Queensland tally hits 10 after an international student studying at the University of Queensland tests positive. 

March 11: WHO declares a global pandemic.

March 12: Double Oscar winner Tom Hanks and his actor-singer wife Rita Wilson test positive for COVID-19 on the Gold Coast.

March 13: Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is admitted to a Brisbane hospital after contracting the disease.

March 15: Health authorities confirm Queensland’s first COVID-19 death, a 77-year-old woman from the Sunshine Coast who died after falling ill on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.

March 16: Queensland senator Susan McDonald tests positive. UQ and Griffith University suspend lectures. All people entering Australia must self-isolate for 14 days.

March 17: Police hit pause on all static random breath tests and jury trials are suspended.

March 18: More emergency laws pass to allow Queensland delivery trucks to restock supermarkets 24/7 to curb effects of panic-buying, and Indigenous communities begin to ban travel.

“The very way we interact with each other must change, and it must change today.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, March 18, 2020

March 19: The infamous Ruby Princess cruise ship docks in Sydney Harbour. The NSW government assesses the ship as “low risk” despite more than 100 passengers presenting with acute respiratory symptoms. The ship spawns 900 COVID-cases and 22 people die.

March 20: Australia’s borders close to all non-residents as Queensland’s COVID tally hits 184. Queensland coronial inquests are adjourned, elective surgeries are postponed and school NAPLAN tests are scrapped. The national cabinet agrees to limits of one person per four square metres in indoor venues and Palaszczuk tells people not to go to pubs.

March 22: Palaszczuk pledges $17 million in funding to help UQ researchers fast-track a vaccine while Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.

March 23: Australia enters the first stage of a nation-wide shutdown, which closes restaurants, pubs, clubs and gyms. Thousands of workers lose their jobs.

March 24: Guests are banned from weddings and no more than 10 mourners can attend funerals. State government unveils $4 billion rescue package.

March 25: Toowoomba man Garry Kirstenfeldt, 68, becomes the ninth Australian to die after contracting SARS-CoV-2 on a cruise ship. He dies alone in intensive care and is the virus’ second Queensland victim.

March 26: Queensland closes its borders for the first time in 100 years. Thousands of Australians are stranded on cruise ships overseas.

March 28: Hotel quarantine is introduced, with taxpayers footing the bill. Queensland council elections and two state byelections are held as 70 new cases are confirmed in a single day. There are 270,000 people who fail to cast a ballot.

March 29: Karla Lake dies from COVID-19 in Caboolture Hospital after travelling on the Ruby Princess. Palaszczuk says Brisbane’s RNA showgrounds will become a makeshift hospital if the cases surge out of control.

March 30: Federal government’s wage subsidy scheme JobKeeper starts as Queensland’s tally reaches 689 cases. Only people living alone are allowed visitors. Couples living in separate sharehouses are told they can not see one another. 

April

April 2: Des Williams becomes the fourth Queenslander to die while infected with the virus after disembarking the Ruby Princess. Federal government offers free childcare. 

April 3: State authorities change visiting rules after widespread confusion. Another 39 people test positive lifting the total cases to 873. Domestic violence advocates warn of crisis as victims are locked inside with abusers.

April 5: Ruby Princess outbreak claims another life. A 78-year-old man dies in Prince Charles Hospital and is Queensland’s fifth COVID victim.

April 6: Eight workers at the Ipswich Hospital pathology laboratory go into quarantine after coming into contact with a confirmed case.

April 7: A nurse who treated COVID patients at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital is one of 13 people to test positive. 

April 8: Modelling reveals 30,000 Queenslanders would have died from COVID-19 if strict distancing laws were not introduced. Doctors are banned from prescribing hydroxychloroquine, spruiked by then-US president Donald Trump as a cure.

“I think we’re going to smash the curve.”

Annastacia Palaszczuk, April 13, 2020

April 13: Palaszczuk announces state and private schools will be mostly pupil-free for the first half of term two.

April 14: In a rare act of bipartisanship, Palaszczuk, a Labor premier, lauds Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s leadership during the coronavirus crisis.

April 16: Queensland’s number of confirmed coronavirus cases pushes past 1000.

April 18: A sixth Queenslander dies from COVID-19 while in quarantine in Sydney. The 83-year-old man had been a passenger on the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship.

April 20: Queensland and NSW enter a bidding war for Virgin Australia headquarters after the airline goes into voluntary administration, which Queensland wins. The Queensland school websites crashes as 1.8 million students try to learn from home and the state records the first day of zero cases since lockdown.

April 21: Five hospital lab workers test positive in Cairns.

April 22: A scaled-back Queensland Parliament sits for a snap 13-hour sitting to debate and pass more emergency laws.

April 24: Gold Coast MP-turned Opposition Leader David Crisafulli slams Dr Young after she decides to cancel an Anzac Day fly-over. He tells broadcaster Alan Jones: “This is punch-drunk bureaucrats who are power hungry and it needs to be called out.”

April 26: Palaszczuk announces the first round of easing restrictions. People will be allowed to leave home to go for a drive, picnic and shop for non-essential goods, such as clothing. Federal government releases the COVIDSafe app. 

April 28: Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts resigns as Queensland’s opposition police spokesman after being fined for breaching coronavirus restrictions by attending a street party.

April 30: Queensland’s unemployment rate jumps to 6.8 per cent after the state’s economy lost 129,500 workers.

May

May 4: Palaszczuk announces Queensland children will return to the classroom in two stages, starting May 11.

May 7: Dr Young announces two households will be allowed to congregate together, just in time for Mother’s Day.

May 11: Queensland’s then-health minister Steven Miles is sworn in as deputy premier.

“This is the worst global economic crisis we have seen. Nobody alive on the planet has ever seen this.”

Treasurer Cameron Dick, May 14, 2020

May 15: Restaurants, pubs, clubs, RSLs and cafes can reopen to 10 patrons at a time. A Rockhampton nurse working at a state-run aged care facility tests positive, sending the centre into lockdown.

May 18: Palaszczuk announces borders could stay closed until September, kicking off the long-running border war between herself and the NSW Premier.

May 26: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson imposes a “deadline” on the Queensland government to lift border restrictions or face a constitutional challenge in the High Court.

May 27: Nathan Turner, 30, dies at his home in Blackwater. He tests positive to COVID-19 following an autopsy. Thousands of people in central Queensland come forward for testing.

May 31: Queenslanders are allowed to travel around the state. During May, the state’s unemployment jumps to 7.9 per cent, the highest since February 2002.

June

June 2: A coroner rules Nathan Turner, thought to be Australia’s youngest COVID-19 victim, did not have the virus after he tests negative. Health authorities believe his initial test was a false-positive, prompting backlash from the small mining community. Queensland Health director-general John Wakefield reveals his department was planning for 20 per cent of the state, about 1 million people, to contract coronavirus during the first wave, initially predicted to last six months. About 50,000 people are predicted to get seriously ill and require ventilation in intensive care.

June 6: A Melbourne fruit picker tests positive for COVID-19 after flying to Brisbane and then on to Bundaberg.

June 7: Tens of thousands of people pour into Brisbane’s CBD for a Black Lives Matter protest.

June 14: Hundreds of activists defy health advice to protest the indefinite detention of asylum seekers being held at a Kangaroo Point hotel.

June 15: One-hundred people now allowed to attend funerals. 

June 16: Palaszczuk scraps the rule that other states must record 28 days of no community transmission for borders to open.

June 17: Laws are rushed through Parliament to freeze the wages of hundreds of thousands of public servants for a year in a bid to save $500 million.

June 18: Aged care lockdown lifts, with visitors allowed for the first time since March. Queensland to start charging travellers for their mandatory hotel quarantine stays.

June 20: Up to 100 fans are allowed inside sporting stadiums.

June 25: Miles admits the state faced shortages of personal protective equipment during the height of the pandemic after authorities had earlier assured there had been no supply issues.

June 30: Melbourne lockdown begins as Queensland announces it will reopen its borders on July 10, but not to Victorians.

July

July 3: House parties, nightclubs, casinos and concerts are back. One-hundred people allowed to gather indoors and event attendance can swell to 10,000 people if venues have a COVID-safe plan.

July 7: The state government says plan to bring international students back into the state is “almost finalised” (six months on, it has not happened).

July 10: Queensland’s border reopens to all but travellers from Victoria, where hundreds of new cases are being reported each day.

July 14: The NSW local government areas of Liverpool and Campbelltown will be declared COVID-19 hotspots.

July 24: Queenslanders are told they must sit down at pubs and restaurants again.

July 29: All of greater Sydney declared a hotspot. A pair of travellers test positive for COVID-19 after travelling from Melbourne and avoiding mandatory quarantine. Queensland has gone three months without community transmission.

July 30: Olivia Muranga, Diana Lasu and Haja Timbo are accused of providing false information to border officials and are charged. Health officials fear a massive outbreak as two of the women spent eight days mingling in the community before testing positive. Queensland has the highest unemployment rate in Australia, at 8.8 per cent, with 234,800 Queenslanders now unemployed.

August

August 5: Queensland closes its border to NSW and the ACT, meaning 14 million Australians can no longer enter the state.

“We had a three-month streak of no community transfer until the selfishness of a few undid the hard work of the many.”

Annastacia Palaszczuk, August 11

August 13: Palaszczuk warns of the “danger on the doorstep” as almost 300 COVID-19 cases remain active in NSW.

August 20: The Brisbane youth detention centre goes into lockdown after a COVID-positive Ipswich woman worked five shifts while infectious.

August 22: Six new cases linked to the detention centre. Gathering restrictions reintroduced as fears of mass outbreak grows.

August 23: Two more cases linked to detention centre. Genome tests ordered which eventually reveal the youth detention centre outbreak is linked to the Logan cluster.

August 24: The COVID-19 cluster at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre grows to 10 cases. Dr Young warns the state is in a “risky period”. A Brisbane kebab shop is fined for an impromptu rave.

August 26: A criminal investigation launches into Melbourne millionaire Mark Simonds and his family after the Queensland government revokes a quarantine exemption for their superyacht Lady Pamela.

August 27: All Queensland prisons go into lockdown after a guard trainer tests positive at the Corrective Services Academy.

August 28: Schoolies is cancelled. Prison training academy cluster grows to four. 

September 9: Hanks returns to Queensland and is placed into mandatory hotel quarantine. The total cases in the Brisbane prison cluster now sit at 43 — seven are staff at Ipswich Hospital.

September 13: A war of words erupts between Palaszczuk and Morrison after Canberra nurse Sarah Caisip flies home too late to say goodbye to her dying father and is locked in hotel quarantine the morning of his funeral. She is later granted an exemption to view his body.

September 15: Queensland considers lowering the bar to reopen the border with NSW by halving the required number of days with no community transmission from 28 to 14.

September 16: Nursing home lockdown ends after almost five weeks.

September 22: Palaszczuk announces Queensland’s border bubble will shift further south in October, letting 152,000 more people from NSW into the state without having to quarantine or apply for an exemption.

September 23: A Queensland man who spent 77 days in intensive care on and off a ventilator with COVID-19 is moved to a rehabilitation centre after a six-month hospital stay.

September 24: Restrictions ease as threat from cluster linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, Queensland Corrective Services Academy and Ipswich Hospital ease. A total of 55 cases are linked to the clusters.

September 30: The Australian Defence Force pulls troops from border checkpoints and redeploys them to hotel quarantine, as travellers return from overseas.

October

October 5: An investigation into the Rockhampton aged care nurse who tested positive to COVID-19 in May finds the woman did not breach public health restrictions.

October 6: Queensland state election campaign kicks off. Palaszczuk’s campaign leans heavily on the state’s pandemic success.

October 24: Queensland hosts the AFL grand final for the first time because of Victorian outbreak.

October 30: Palaszczuk makes border announcement one day before Queenslanders head to the polls. Queensland will reopen its borders to NSW on November 3, except for Sydney.

October 31: Palaszczuk secures Labor’s third consecutive state win in Queensland.

November

November 1: No locally acquired cases are detected in Australia for the first time since June 1.

November 6: A feud of text messages heats up between NSW Premier and Palaszczuk over borders and State of Origin.

November 16: Queensland closes borders to greater Adelaide after a small outbreak.

December 28: New testing regime introduced in Queensland requires staff in quarantine hotels to be tested for COVID-19 every week or risk prison or a $13,000 fine.

December 31: Queensland finishes the year with 1250 cases and six deaths. Nationally, 28,381 people have been infected and 909 Australians have died. The global tally surpasses 81 million cases and 1.78 million deaths have been reported to the World Health Organisation.

January

January 7: A cleaner at one of Queensland’s quarantine hotels tests positive to the highly contagious UK strain of COVID-19 – the first case of local transmission in the state for almost four months.

January 8: Brisbane goes into a three-day lockdown.

January 11: Lockdown lifts but masks remain mandatory. 

January 13: Hotel Grand Chancellor is evacuated and hundreds of people are put in quarantine. Palaszczuk calls for an immediate overhaul of Australia’s quarantine system.

January 14: Remote mining camps are earmarked as possible quarantine facilities for Australians returning from overseas.

January 15: Queensland relaxes timeline for interstate authorities to link COVID-19 cases.

January 22: Greater Brisbane returns to pre-Christmas restrictions. 

January 25: Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is provisionally approved for Australian use. Australia suspends its quarantine-free travel arrangement with New Zealand.

January 27: Queensland’s COVID tally sits at 1306 cases. Of those people, 77 per cent caught the virus overseas, 18 per cent were infected in Queensland by a close contact, 3 per cent of cases remain a mystery and 2 per cent caught the virus interstate.