Melbourne woman, infected with Covid-19, travelled from Victoria to Queensland by car during lockdown
Queensland #Queensland
A Melbourne woman on a roadtrip far from lockdown managed to cross two state borders into NSW and Queensland last week without realising she was infected with Covid-19.
Travelling with her partner from one of Melbourne’s outer suburbs, the woman, 44, left Victoria on June 1, four days after Victoria’s lockdown started.
She tested positive at Caloundra on the picturesque Sunshine Coast on June 8 after joining relatives there, but had been experiencing symptoms since as early as June 3.
As three states now scramble to track the pair’s movements, questions are rightly being asked about how they managed to leave Victoria and cross state lines when Melbourne had been declared a hot spot.
Melburnians in lockdown were banned from travelling 5km from home and Victorians have been banned from entering NSW unless they live in border communities.
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Queensland declared all of Victoria a hotspot on May 28, meaning anybody who had been in Victoria within 14 days of attempting to enter Queensland faced mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine.
The Queensland Health website outlines the only reason for entry into Queensland from a hotspot: “Essential purposes”. But authorities said nothing about an exemption when addressing the media on Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t know the details of why they left or what the reason was,” Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said.
“Of course we will be looking into how all this happened.”
The couple took a route through regional NSW, stopping at Gillenbah, Forbes, Dubbo and Moree before crossing the border into Queensland at Goondiwindi — a suburb on the MacIntyre River, 350km south west of Brisbane.
According to the Courier Mail, one theory about the couple’s route is that they chose to cross the border at Goondiwindi because the focus of police patrols were on the border at the Gold Coast.
Gold Coast police Superintendent Rhys Wildman said officers were performing up to 100 random intercepts every day.
“If you try to get into Queensland illegally through the Gold Coast, there is a high likelihood of being identified and intercepted,” he said.
The newspaper reports that police had not been considering reinstalling border checkpoints after Melbourne’s outbreak caused a lockdown.
Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski was asked at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon if the pair “lied on her declaration form”.
He would not be drawn on the question, saying the priority was tracking the pair’s movements.
Their trip through NSW included plenty of stops, starting at Caltex Narrandera on June 1. They stopped at the Vandenberg Hotel in Forbes later that day and the Brew Coffee Bar, also in Forbes, on June 2.
They visited the Church Street Cafe, Reading Cinemas, the Homestead Hotel in Dubbo and a Shell petrol station on June 2 and made a second visit to the Homestead Hotel on June 3.
In Moree, the couple stopped at a Woolworths on June 3 and at Gwydir Carpark Motel & Thermal Pools on June 3, June 4 and June 5 and went to Cafe Omego in Moree on June 4 and June 5.
Authorities in Queensland identified six close contacts from their time in the state.
A list of exposure sites include a Goondiwindi McDonalds on June 5, Sunny’s cafe at Moffat Beach and Coffee Cat at Kings Beach on June 6, and Stockland Shopping Centre and a Bunnings Warehouse in Caloundra on June 7.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the woman and her partner entered Queensland on June 5, passing through Goondiwindi and Toowoomba.
“The woman was tested yesterday and, it was confirmed today, that it was a positive case,” Ms D’Ath said.
Dr Young said the news was a lot to deal with for Queenslanders who had already suffered through more than a year of uncertainty.
“The community has had to put up with so much now for 18 months and to do this again, it doesn’t matter the cause, any community case of covid is going to be frustrating for a lot of people,” she said.
She urged anyone with even mild symptoms to get tested for Covid-19.
“Anyone who has been to an exposure site listed on our website must come forward and get tested,” she said.
“Anyone else who has symptoms – no matter how mild – need to be tested as soon as possible.
“Get tested and stay home until you get the results, as the most minor symptom might be COVID-19.
“Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue or loss of smell and/or taste.”
The Melbourne woman is being managed by Sunshine Coast University Hospital staff and her partner is also in hospital being monitored in case he develops symptoms.
Victoria’s 14-day lockdown ends at midnight on Thursday but a number of restrictions remain in place, including a ban on travelling 25km from home unless for essential caregiving, work or to receive a vaccination.