Eight more venues across regional New South Wales have been put on alert after a coronavirus infected couple road tripped across the state before moving to Queensland.
Health authorities have confirmed the pair did not have an exemption to leave Victoria and travel to Queensland, and are investigating whether they lied on their border exemption passes.
Several New South Wales towns are on high alert after a woman with Covid-19 travelled by road from Victoria to Queensland, visiting numerous venue over the four-day trip.
Health authorities were able to detect a Covid-infected woman thanks to sheer luck after she travelled across three states with her husband.
The 44-year-old woman fled locked-down Melbourne on June 1 and travelled with her partner through regional NSW before entering Queensland on June 5.
The woman is believed to have been visiting family in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast and was tested on Tuesday before returning a positive result on Wednesday.
She had been experiencing symptoms from June 3 but only sought a test on June 8.
The pair were only detected when the couple came forward for testing because the man needed negative results for work purposes - with health authorities admitting it was down to luck that the case was caught.
The woman and her husband left Melbourne on 1 June, during the state’s recent lockdown. The pair travelled through NSW and arrived in Queensland on 5 June.
The woman’s husband has so far tested negative and there are five other identified close contacts. Young said the pair were staying with family in Caloundra.
Young said it was too early to discuss whether Queensland would need to enter a lockdown. She said there was no evidence yet of local transmission in Queensland as the woman contracted the virus in Victoria.
A police spokesperson told reporters they were investigating how the couple entered Queensland and it was “too early” to say whether they had committed any breaches of health directions.