The Australian city of Brisbane has begun to shut down for three days after a cleaner in its hotel quarantine system became infected with coronavirus.
Health officials say the cleaner has the UK’s most easily transmitted type and fears it could spread.
Brisbane has seen far fewer cases of the virus beyond quarantined travellers since Australia’s first wave last year.
It is the first known example of this distinction that enters Australian society outside of hotel quarantine.
The Safety Measures
Closure of densely populated council buildings in Queensland’s capital.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the measure on Friday morning local time, about 16 hours after the woman was diagnosed with COVID new strain which spreads 70-80% faster than the previous virus.
Ms Palaszczuk said the closure was aimed at stopping the virus as soon as possible, adding: “Doing it for three days now can prevent doing it from doing it for 30 days in the future.”
“I think everybody in Queensland… knows what we are seeing in the UK and other places around the world is high rates of infection from this particular strain,” she said.
“And we don’t want to see that happen here in our good state.”
Australia has reported 28,500 coronavirus infections and 909 deaths since the outbreak began. In contrast, the US, the worst-hit country, recorded more than 21 million diseases while nearly 362,000 people died from the disease.
