Mass vaccination center opens as Queensland registers four cases of COVID-19 in community

Queensland will open its largest mass vaccination center in two days as the state recorded four new local cases of COVID-19 overnight.

Authorities have said the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center’s new location will “overload” Pfizer’s vaccination rate, hoping they can deliver 3,000 doses per day to the facility by the weekend.

Anyone over the age of 16 has been invited to register to get a jab.

The announcement comes as the four locally acquired cases today have been detected in home quarantine and linked to the existing Indooroopilly cluster.

“This is the kind of news we want to wake up to,” Prime Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

A fifth case has been recorded in quarantine at the hotel.

The total number of active cases is now 153, with 12,364 people in home quarantine and 26,394 tests performed in the past 24 hours.

Today marks the first full day since stay-at-home orders were lifted for 11 local government areas in south-eastern Queensland, although Cairns and Yarrabah have entered their own three-day snap lockdown.

Ms Palaszczuk said “very good detective work” in Cairns confirmed that the taxi driver, who tested positive yesterday, was linked to the marine pilot who tested positive last week.

“The marine pilot actually traveled in this person’s taxi,” she said.

“A lot of contact tracing is now going on with these exhibit sites of course, but it’s nice to know that the connection has been made, honestly, a great job on the part of our staff at Queensland Health.”

Dr Young said it was essential for people in Cairns and the Gold Coast to come forward for testing so authorities can detect any other chain of transmission.

“No symptoms, don’t wait for a call from Queensland Health,” she said.

For Cairns it is vital that you are now locked out for three days while we calculate all of the contacts of this taxi driver and go back and re-evaluate all of the contacts of this pilot, who brings the ships through. the reef. “

This is a positive case of COVID-19, a man in his 50s was detected at Lismore Base Hospital, who “may have traveled from the Gold Coast” to Byron Bay where he stayed the last five days.

“Please be patient”

Dr Young said it was suspected that the Kanimbla taxi driver acquired the pilot’s COVID while transporting him from his home to the airport.

This pilot then flew to Brisbane.

She rejected suggestions that it could be a failed contact tracing that the taxi driver was not picked up.

“Of course not. We do our best and work with individuals, but individuals don’t always know everything and that’s why we have to keep the restrictions in place for another two weeks,” she said.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service Executive Director Tina Chinery said the 971 tests performed by Queensland Health staff yesterday all returned negative results, but they were awaiting nearly 1,000 more results from private clinics.

“As Cairns we have a lot of flights to Brisbane so we have samples going down and at the moment we understand that the wait time is around 24 hours for our private providers”, a- she declared.

The health department’s acting medical director Grant Howard said all of the taxi driver’s high-risk close contacts had been contacted.

Deputy Prime Minister Steven Miles urged the people of Cairns to be patient during their lockdown.

“I really urge people to buy only what they need, to shop alone rather than in groups, and to be patient,” he said.

Yesterday, the Gold Coast recorded a positive case in the region.

Opening of a mass vaccination center

The Prime Minister announced on Wednesday the opening of a mass vaccination center at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center.

Those aged 16 to 59 are encouraged to register on the Queensland Health website.

People on the Queensland Health list will be given priority, but we are now open to anyone between the ages of 16 and 59, she said.

We want as many people in Queensland to be vaccinated as quickly and safely as possible.

It will be open seven days a week and on weekends as well.

You are not only protecting yourself, you are protecting your family and your community. “

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said it was possible to bring forward the opening of the mass vaccination center due to doses of Pfizer scheduled to arrive later this week.

“We don’t have it yet,” she said.

“We will start Wednesday with around 1,000 to 1,500 vaccines per day,” said Ms. D’Ath.

“When we get the extra vaccine, due on Friday, we hope to get 3,000 a day by the weekend.”

She reiterated that it would not be a drop-in location and that reservations were required.

Free parking will be offered to anyone getting vaccinated at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center.

Ms. Palaszczuk said “think well of others [mass hubs]” in the future.

“Let’s get this one up and running and see how it goes,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said the center would administer Pfizer and AstraZeneca for people receiving their second jab.

“Always see first generation cases”

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Jeannette Young said one of the four community-acquired cases was a staff member at Ironside State School.

“So we are still seeing first generation cases,” she said.

“We all have to remember that the incubation period is 14 days, so it’s very important that people, all of those 12,000 people [in home quarantine] stay and stick to this quarantine as we go along. “

The other local cases were a parent of a child who attended Ironside, a family contact linked to Brisbane Grammar School and another family contact from Ironside State School.

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