Dr Jeanette Young warns Queensland COVID outbreak is ‘branching off’ with gaps between initial infections raising the alarm

Queensland health authorities have said there are signs the growing COVID-19 outbreak is “branching off” and there “missing cases” between the initial infections.

On Tuesday, the state recorded its second day straight of double-digit daily cases, with 16 new infections, bringing the total of the Delta strain cluster to 47.

While all the new cases were linked to Indooroopilly sites and schools, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said health authorities are still not sure how the outbreak initially spread.

But she did confirm new genome sequencing had revealed the virus is “branching off” extensively from the initial source of transmission.

As the search for the outbreak’s missing link continues, authorities have turned their attention to the Sunshine Coast where it is unclear how many undiagnosed infections may exist.

A health worker is seen outside a COVID-19 testing clinic in Brisbane. Credit: DAN PELED/AAPIMAGE

“This suggests to me those five initial cases in that family were fairly closely related to one of those (first) two cases,” She said.

“There’s still missing cases between them, absolutely. But possibly not a large number.

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‘There’s still missing cases between them, absolutely.’

“But even one case can lead to another outbreak.”

A day earlier, 13 new local cases were recorded, prompting 11 council areas across the state’s south east having their lockdown extended, to now end at 4pm on Sunday.

The lockdown is in place in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Logan, Moreton Bay, Noosa, Redland, Scenic Rim, Somerset and the Sunshine Coast.

Young said the health team were still trying to find the missing link between two travellers in hotel quarantine and the rest of the community.

One of the travellers had arrived in Brisbane from Indonesia and the other from the United Kingdom, and all of the genome sequencing results show the local cases are “clustering” with those travellers.

“I am still concerned we don’t know how this outbreak has happened,” she said.

“We know the first two cases arrived into Queensland on June 29, but I don’t know how it’s gotten from these to people to the first family.”