Thousands of prisoners in south-east Queensland have been confined to their cells after a corrective services training officer tested positive to COVID-19.
The employee, from the Queensland Corrective Services Training Academy, last worked on Friday 21 August and returned the positive test on Wednesday.
The officer helped to train 14 recruits and was in close contact with 11 colleagues, who are all now in self-isolation. He had not worked in any correction centres during the time of his infection.
All prisons from the Capricornia region to the South East Queensland border have been placed into stage four lockdowns as a precaution.
“This is an extreme step, but an overly cautious step, but it's one absolutely consistent with the best advice from Queensland Health,” QCS Commissioner Peter Martin said.
Stage four restrictions are aimed at limiting unnecessary movement in and out of prisons, with around 7,000 inmates confined to their cells.
Staff are also barred from attending affected offices until forensic cleans are undertaken.
There are at least 12 cases now linked to a cluster in South East Queensland originating from an employee who worked at Brisbane youth detention centre in Wacol.
The state recorded two new infections overnight, the second a Cairns resident who recently returned from overseas and is in hotel quarantine.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young also revealed genomic sequencing results investigating a potential link in infection between the first case linked to the prison cluster and two women who illegally re-entered the state in July.
The results found the virus strains in both cases were almost identical, but because the strain had not mutated significantly, the prison infection also registered matches with other unrelated cases.
“We can't say definitively that those two cases are linked, but we can't say they're not,” Dr Young said.
The government is looking at continuing contact tracing work to determine if there is a link.
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your state’s restrictions on gathering limits.
If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, stay home and arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
