Queensland Covid scare: Melbourne couple escape lockdown, one tests positive Wed, 9 Jun 2021, 7:46PM
Queensland s Health Minister Yvette D Ath and chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young. (Photo / Getty Images)
Queensland Covid scare: Melbourne couple escape lockdown, one tests positive Wed, 9 Jun 2021, 7:46PM
A Melbourne couple have sparked a Covid scare in Queensland after leaving lockdown and travelling to the Sunshine Coast.
The pair are reported to have spent several days in regional New South Wales before moving north to Queensland on June 5, where a 44-year-old woman tested positive in Caloundra on June 8.
Queensland still regards Melbourne to be a Covid hotspot, with travellers from the southern state s capital required to complete hotel quarantine on arrival.
Authorities admit the discovery of a Covid case in a woman who escaped Melbourne’s lockdown with her partner to travel to the Sunshine Coast happened due to sheer luck, as police reveal the likely reason they chose their border crossing point.
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.
 A Melbourne woman on a roadtrip far from lockdown managed to cross two state borders into NSW and Queensland last week without realising she was infected with Covid-19. Travelling with her partner from one of Melbourne s outer suburbs, the woman, 44, left Victoria on June 1, four days after Victoria s lockdown started. She tested positive at Caloundra on the picturesque Sunshine Coast on June 8 after joining relatives there, but had been experiencing symptoms since as early as June 3. The Melbourne woman is being managed by Sunshine Coast University Hospital staff and her partner is also in hospital being monitored in case he develops symptoms with concerns he may catch the virus after spending so much time inside the car.