According to The Guardian on 7 January 2021:
A Queensland hotel quarantine worker has contracted the highly infectious UK strain of Covid-19, prompting the state’s health authorities to send aged care homes in parts of greater Brisbane into lockdown.
The cleaner, a woman in her 20s, was working at a hotel that contained patients with the strain, which has been found to be more infectious than previous strains.
While The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 8 January 2021:
Six returned travellers in Sydney have tested positive to the UK variant of the COVID-19 virus and four returned travellers are positive for the South African variant - both believed to be more contagious than earlier strains.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant revealed the 10 people who arrived since November 30 had all been quarantined in special health accommodation - separate from the NSW Police-run hotel quarantine sites.
A family of four learned they all carried the more infectious South African variant of the virus (known as B1.351) when their preliminary test results came back on Thursday night. All 16 people on their flight from South Africa to Sydney have been moved into the accommodation as a precaution, Dr Chant said.
Then on 9 January 2021 ABC News reported that a woman; flew to Brisbane on a Jetstar flight from Victoria and has tested positive for the highly contagious UK variant of coronavirus.
All four of the travellers in NSW with the South African variant of the virus have been discharged from the special accommodation as they were no longer infectious. The other two remain in quarantine in the facility. In an abundance of caution the Victorian woman who travelled to Queensland is also in quarantine.
The South African variant of the virus appears to have emerged in August 2020 while the UK variant was identified in November 2020.
This situation has resulted in changes to public health orders.
Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 8 January 2021:
The NSW Government has put in place a new Public Health Order to ensure anyone who visits NSW from the Greater Brisbane area, or who has arrived in NSW from this area in recent days, must follow similar ‘stay at home’ rules as those being put in place by the Queensland Government.
Under the Order, anyone entering NSW by any mode of transport from the City of Brisbane, City of Ipswich, Lockyer Valley Region, Logan City, Moreton Bay Region, Redland City, Scenic Rim Region, and Somerset Region must go directly to their home or place of accommodation in NSW, and remain there until 6pm on Monday 11 January 2021.
The Order applies to anyone who has arrived in NSW from those areas since 12.01am on 2 January 2021. People who have arrived in NSW after transiting through Brisbane Airport will not be subject to the requirements of the Order, provided they have not been in the listed areas.
Once at their home or place of accommodation, Queensland arrivals are allowed to leave only for the purposes of obtaining food or essential shopping, taking exercise, work duties if they cannot be done from home, caring duties or medical care, until 6pm on Monday.
People coming to Greater Sydney (including Wollongong, the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains) from Queensland or elsewhere are also reminded of the need to wear face masks in certain situations, including while shopping, under a separate Public Health Order signed earlier this week.
In addition, from 6pm today all people arriving in NSW from Queensland by air must also complete a self-declaration form stating their name, address and where they stayed in Queensland, and dates of arrival and departure.
Enforcement officers will have the power to require information and identification documentation to assist in checking compliance.
Anyone who is travelling to NSW from Queensland, or has recently done so, is asked to monitor for even the mildest of symptoms and immediately get tested and isolate if any symptoms develop. Once tested, you must remain in isolation until a negative result is received, in line with the normal advice for all people in NSW.
Anyone who has been in the Greater Brisbane area since 2 January cannot visit people in aged care or health care facilities in NSW.
Genome sequencing has confirmed a Queensland case of COVID-19 has the more transmissible UK variant of the virus. NSW Health continues to closely monitor the situation and regularly updates its health advice.
We will continue to work closely with our colleagues in Queensland and other states and territories to ensure that appropriate public health measures are in place to protect the health and safety of people throughout Australia. [my yellow highlighting]
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