Queensland has recorded a second COVID-19 case linked to a Portuguese Family Centre visited by a flight attendant infected during hotel quarantine. The center president, Carlos Almeida, has told reporters he’s tested positive for the virus and is now in hospital with symptoms.
He had contact with the first case linked to the center – a man in his 60s.
Both men were at the center when it was visited by a flight attendant who became infected during a two-week stint in hotel quarantine.
She was released before she tested positive, and the Portuguese Family Centre was one of the venues she visited before she went back into isolation.
Others at the center – 36 in all – continue to isolate and are being carefully monitored.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young believes the flight attendant was infected by a hotel quarantine worker who escorted a COVID-positive guest to an ambulance and then went to the attendant’s room to swab her.
There have also been other virus transmission cases between guests at Brisbane Airport’s Novotel.
Meanwhile, a man is due to leave hotel quarantine in Sydney after being cleared to travel to Queensland to see his dying father.
A quarantine exemption issued Wednesday evening to Mark Kilian and his partner Anneli Gericke was conditional on “NSW finalizing arrangement of safe transfer of the couple to Queensland”.
The couple has taken their final “exit” COVID test in NSW and expects to get their results on Thursday morning.
Pending a negative result, they will be transported to Sydney airport in complete personal protective equipment to get on a charter plane due to leave for the Gold Coast around noon.
“It’ll be something I think we’ll all remember for the rest of our lives,” Mark told Nine Network on Thursday.
“We’re not going on a holiday or a cruise, we’re going for something that’s going to be very sad, but at least there’s a dignity to how we can do it now.”
Father Frans Kilian, 80, is in a hospital on the Gold Coast, suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Mark and Anneli have been in Sydney completing quarantine after rushing to Australia from Los Angeles more than a week ago.
“We’re not sure what the plan is when we arrive (on the Gold Coast) … we’re taking it one step at a time,” Mark told Brisbane radio 4BC on Thursday.
“There are plans … to facilitate a visit with my dad; we’re just not sure when it will be.”
Mark said his father was “elated” by the news.
“He was the first call we made, and he was absolutely (as) elated and emotional as he could be in his state about the situation.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Wednesday that her state had done everything possible to allow the reunion.
“At least a week ago … New South Wales made it clear there did not impede them from making that journey.”
The decision on the quarantine exemption for the couple came after Frans pleaded with Queensland Health to show compassion.
“Every day that they are in that hotel is a day less than I have with my son and daughter-in-law in my last days,” he said in a video appeal from his hospital bed.
Queensland has now closed its borders to Greater Sydney and the surrounding regions of the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong, and Shellharbour in response to Sydney’s growing COVID-19 outbreak.
