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Cairns business owners are on tenterhooks as they brace for the possibility of restrictions following a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the region that is not linked to the Brisbane cluster.
A vaccinated reef pilot was confirmed on Wednesday to have the Delta variant of coronavirus, but Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said it was not the same strain as the outbreak stemming from Brisbane’s Indooroopilly State High School.
“It is not the Delta strain that is circulating Brisbane and it hasn’t clustered with any other known case of Delta in Queensland,” she said.
Dr Young said it was highly likely the man acquired the virus while he was piloting one of the ships through the reef, and authorities would work to identify if it matched with any other case in Australia or overseas.
Queensland records nine new local COVID-19 cases - its highest spike in almost a year 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.
More than three million Queenslanders will enter into the state s strictest lockdown ever after six new Covid cases were recorded on Saturday - with NRL, AFL and Super Netball games all cancelled.
From 4pm on Saturday 3.2million residents from 11 LGAs in the state will be confined to their homes for three days until 4pm on Tuesday.
The new cases are all confirmed to be the highly contagious Indian delta strain of the virus.
The LGas affected include Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Logan, Noosa Shire, Redland City, the Scenic Rim Regional Council, the Somerset Regional Council and the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.