Queensland hospital worker confirmed to have Delta coronavirus variant as millions wake up in lockdown sbs.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sbs.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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State and territory health authorities are on high alert after cases of COVID-19 were detected in the Northern Territory, Perth, and Brisbane.
Darwin is entering its first full day of lockdown over fears of transmission at a mine site, while new mask mandates are in effect for Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Sunday that case numbers in the state are likely to increase over the coming days.
New South Wales faces an anxious wait for the latest figures from the state’s COVID-19 outbreak, while cases detected in the Northern Territory, Perth, Brisbane, and the Sunshine Coast have put the nation on high alert.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk - AAP
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Southeast Queensland is on the verge of a lockdown after recording two new local cases of COVID-19, with the government moving to mandate wearing face masks.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says one new case is believed to the Alpha strain and linked to cluster involving the Portuguese Family Centre in Brisbane.
The other is a case of the Delta strain, a close contact of a miner who was out in the Sunshine Coast town of Bli Bli after becoming infected at a Northern Territory mine.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is more concerned about 169 other workers who arrived in the state from the same mine and are still being tested.
He said the only way to tackle the Delta strain of the virus was to either put restrictions in place, or have a large proportion of the population vaccinated against COVID-19.
“[The Delta variant is] twice as infectious and moves rapidly,” Mr Andrews said. “By the time you get to a person who’s a case … they’ve already infected all their family, and indeed other people, some that they don’t even know.”
Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley on Monday said that, since Victoria declared several local government areas in Sydney “red zones” last Wednesday, more than 5000 people in the zones have applied to get into Victoria.
New South Wales recorded 18 new locally transmitted Covid cases Monday
Gladys Berejiklian said the numbers will bounce around and go up considerably
Queensland recorded three new locally transmitted cases on Monday
Masks will be mandatory indoors and outdoors in QLD 11 local government areas
There are fears the outbreak could carry on growing with thousands exposed
Restrictions now in place in the Northern Territory, WA, Queensland and NSW
Other states have shut their borders to keep the virus out as clusters grow