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Queensland health authorities are hopeful the cluster linked to the Grand Chancellor Hotel has been contained as the state reported another day of zero new cases of community transmission.
A new infection from hotel quarantine, however, revealed a child has fallen ill with the deadly virus.
The state’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said they had recently travelled to South Africa and is in hospital with their parents.
The investigation into the outbreak of the highly contagious strain at a Brisbane hotel where 129 quarantined guests were moved to another quarantine facility during the week, but health authorities believe the cluster has successfully been contained.
“We are now day 14 since I believe that incident happened at the Grand Chancellor that led to those infections in the hotel,” Dr Young said on Saturday.
“We’ve got the people who have been related to the cleaner and her partner. So we need to be very clear we don’t mix those two groups together.
“But this is all very good news. It means that, I believe, due to very quick work by a lot of people and by the people of Greater Brisbane, that there is every chance we have contained this cluster.”
RELATED: Qld’s mining camp quarantine proposal slammed for health risk
The update comes as authorities in South Australia announced it will loosen its border restrictions with the sunshine state and allow those who have been in Greater Brisbane to enter without quarantine from Sunday.
Meanwhile, several politicians have expressed concerns about Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s plan to shift quarantine sites to mining camps in regional Queensland.
Ms Palaszczuk announced on Thursday she would take a proposal to the next national cabinet to use “a couple” of the isolated camps in regional and rural parts of the state to house returned travellers.
It follows a concerning cluster at a Brisbane city hotel quarantine facility, where six people have contracted the same contagious strain of COVID-19, seemingly without a link.
Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham questioned the pitch from Ms Palaszczuk, saying relocating facilities out of cities could jeopardise “health outcomes”.
Mr Birmingham queried the move, saying quarantine facilities needed to have access to medical services and testing facilities.
“That is why the health advice has driven us towards these city hotel locations that can be locked down, but are proximate to those types of health services and testing services that are so important to do it effectively,” he told Today on Friday.
“Let’s remember that in the vast majority of cases, these are about returning Australian citizens. So we want to do it in ways that show compassion to their circumstances, too.”
“We’ll look at any request that comes in as we have done all the way through. There are 1,500 Australian Defence Force personnel working closely with state governments as we speak, to ensure that we get the right outcomes,” he said.
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