Locals in northern NSW were left waiting for hours in bitterly cold conditions on Thursday as COVID-19 testing queues blew out and nurses were stretched to their limit after a couple that that tested positive for coronavirus travelled through the state on their way to Queensland while potentially infectious.
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.
A woman who fled locked-down Melbourne and drove to Queensland with her husband before testing positive to Covid has sparked fears of outbreaks in three states as authorities scramble to find out who else was exposed to the virus.
Police believe the woman, 44, crossed the NSW/Queensland border at the remote rural town of Goondiwindi with her partner on June 5 in a bid to evade authorities.
The couple, who left a suburb on the edge of greater Melbourne on June 1, likely drove the scenic route so they could avoid passing through the Gold Coast - where police perform 100 random intercepts a day and have stricter border control measures in place.