Queensland BAFFLED over how mystery coronavirus cluster began in Brisbane as another two people test positive including a prison officer – plunging 7000 inmates into lockdown
Queensland health officials are still battling to find out the link between two growing coronavirus clusters, as an officer working at a prison training academy tests positive.
Seven thousand inmates across the state are in lockdown after the prison trainer tested positive to COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Queensland Corrective Services Academy said the officer worked on Friday and had been in contact with other trainees who have since been deployed to other prisons.
The incident has sparked fears of a wide outbreak, as the new case brings a growing cluster in the state's southeast to 12.
Twenty-five close contacts of the prison trainer - 14 recruits and 11 colleagues - have been identified, tested and quarantined.
'All correctional facilities in Queensland will remain on full lockdown this morning to allow for briefings and further advice from Queensland Health,' a QCS spokesperson said in a statement.
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Stage four restrictions have been enacted in prisons stretching from Capricornia to the southeast, with all prisoners secured in their cells and movement within the facilities restricted.
Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said the worker trained correctional officers, but did not work in prisons.
Only those who develop symptoms or who have come into contact with the prison trainer will be tested.
The prison worker case adds to a growing cluster that emerged last week linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre at Wacol.
Authorities hope further testing this week will connect the cluster to an earlier outbreak sparked by two infected women who snuck across the border from Melbourne last month.
The new case is the second to be recorded in Queensland in the past 24 hours, along with a person in hotel quarantine.
More to follow.
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