The Sunshine State could slam its border shut to greater Melbourne beyond the current two weeks if there are cases of unlinked community transmission, as authorities race to track down 1500 people now in Queensland who passed through Tullamarine Airport. Queensland s border was closed to 36 areas in Victoria at 1am on Saturday, meaning any Queenslanders who return home over the next 14 days will need to undergo hotel quarantine. Queensland has recorded no new community COVID-19 cases on Saturday. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has revealed the state recorded two new cases of COVID-19, both overseas acquired and detected in hotel quarantine. In the past 24 hours 7597 tests have been undertaken.
Health by Mandy Squires, Alex White, Josh Fagan, Sophie Welsh 12th Feb 2021 12:11 PM Â Melbourne Airport has confirmed a staff member at terminal four cafe Brunetti has tested positive for COVID-19, with greater Melbourne bracing to enter another lockdown. Twenty-nine flights landed at, or took off from, the domestic terminal at the time the infected staff member worked. The total number of passengers that flew on the 29 domestic flights - in the timeframe outlined - through terminal four at Melbourne Airport, was 3591. Anyone who visited terminal four on February 9 between 4.45am and 2pm must be tested for the virus and isolate for 14 days.
The EU ambassador has confirmed the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will be shipped on time, while the AHPPC will look for cracks in the hotel quarantine system.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly has highlighted the fact that no Australian has died from COVID-19 in months or is in intensive care.
“There's very few people that are seriously sick. In fact, virtually none. There's no-one in intensive care, and we haven't seen a death in Australia from COVID for some months,” he said.
“Contrast that with other countries, in the week up to 3 February, I spoke to National Cabinet today about that, in the US they had over a million cases in that week, and over 20,000 deaths.
“We are in a very different situation. We have been all along, and that is - a lot of that is to do with the strength of our hotel quarantine systems and our border controls.
“So, we continue to have a good situation here. In the last week, up to 3 February, we had only had 42 cases overall. All but two of those were overseas-acquired, and the other two, as we know, has been reported in WA and now in Victoria in quarantine workers.”