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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk congratulated the state's residents for a "mighty" effort to try and contain a COVID-19 outbreak with more than 33,000 tests overnight, revealing just three new cases including one in hotel quarantine.
The two cases of community transmission are both connected to a nurse who works at the Princess Alexandra (PA) Hospital, which went into lockdown last night while the Mater Hospital nearby also sent home some staff after it was revealed a COVID-19 case visited its maternity ward.
Yesterday evening Queensland Health also announced several new venues visited by known cases, flagging Gold Coast locations and events including a surf life saving competition in Tugun, the HOTA Markets at Bundall, a few cafés and an escape room in Southport.
But the Premier is encouraged by the figures to date as Greater Brisbane crosses the halfway mark of its three-day lockdown. Of the Queensland's 71 active cases in hospitals, only 13 were acquired locally.
"This is fantastic news that over the past 24 hours there have been 33,408 tests - that is a massive, massive number. I think that's probably our highest," Premier Palaszczuk said.
"If we see the same number of test results tomorrow, this is very, very encouraging news. The fact that we do not have any unlinked community transmission in the Southeast or in our state is absolutely encouraging news."
The Premier said if the news is still encouraging tomorrow, the hotspot for Greater Brisbane will be lifted.
From 8am today, only staff who have had their COVID-19 vaccines can look after people with the virus in the state's hospitals.
"I want to thank [Chief Health Officer] Dr [Jeannette] Young for putting that mandate in place. It makes sense and that'll be an added protective measure for our staff," the Premier said.
Today's new cases are part of the cluster involving the original PA nurse who was infected, although they are not believed to have caught it from her but rather the same returned overseas traveller at the hospital.
"The nurse was fantastic, she really is to be commended. She developed symptoms at 11 O'Clock on Sunday morning, immediately came forward and got tested. We had a very rapid testing turnaround, so we've got that result late on Sunday," Dr Young said.
Updated at 9:27am AEST on 31 March 2021.
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