Queensland ‘unlikely’ to exit lockdown by Sunday
Queensland’s snap lockdown is unlikely to end on Sunday afternoon, according to health experts.
UNSW Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, who is a World Health Organisation advisor, told Channel Nine's the Today show on Tuesday she does not expect the current lockdown affecting the state’s southeast to end as scheduled at 4pm on Sunday.
“It is probably unlikely,” Professor McLaws told the program.
Professor McLaws added health authorities will be undergoing sewage testing for evidence of how far Covid-19 has spread and they have a “huge job” of testing parents of children at several Brisbane schools affected by the virus.
“You would notice that they went into lockdown or they called a lockdown on the second day," she said.
“Because Brisbane is a very interconnected socially city and a lot of those parents are healthcare workers as well, which has an enormous impact on elective surgery as well."
“So it is unlikely for them to lift all restrictions on the weekend.”
Currently, Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim remain under lockdown.
It was originally planned for the lockdown to end on Tuesday at 4pm but 13 new local cases on Monday has seen it extended to Sunday at 4pm.
Seven of the state’s cases are attached to Ironside State School.
'Silver lining': Surging Covid infections could assist NSW lockdown exit
Covid NSW: 207 new cases, premier reveals key to vaccination success
Another is an Indooroopilly State High School student and a University of Queensland student who had been tutoring her.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young told reporters on Monday health authorities are trying to determine how Queensland’s latest outbreak emerged.
“I don’t know where the missing link is,” she said, explaining that the outbreak appears to have come from two people with Delta who arrived from overseas on June 29.
“Subsequently, those two people were found to have the Delta variant with a particular whole genome sequence, and now this outbreak, 29 additional people later, are all clustering with those two.”
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
