Airport scare as border cluster grows

Health authorities issued an alert for anyone who was at Brisbane Domestic Airport on Sunday between 2.40pm and 6.04pm, with those at the Qantas food court area on level 2 now considered a close contact.

The update comes after three new cases were announced in the border town of Goondiwindi on Thursday – all linked to a worsening spread in the nearby NSW community of Moree – with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk bursting the border bubble to help snuff out the threat.

Moree – just 90 minutes from Goondiwindi – was declared a restricted border zone area from 12.01am on Friday after it recorded an additional 30 cases on Thursday.

Two of the three new Queensland cases had visited the community, while the third Queensland case on Thursday was linked to the first two.

Only one of the newly infected people had received a dose of the vaccine.

A NSW woman and a Victorian truck driver also tested positive interstate after being infectious in Goondiwindi.

The state government warned the new cases were a taste of the of the coming Covid tide, with government pleading with residents to protect themselves for an inevitable surge at the reopening of borders on December 17.

Ms Palaszczuk said working in Goondiwindi’s favour was the town’s high vaccination rate.

The community, which has a significant Indigenous population, is more than 81.5 per cent fully vaccinated, well above the 65.3 per cent statewide average.

However, the wider rate in regional Queensland still remains a concern and Ms Palaszczuk also singled out Ipswich, Logan, Beaudesert and the Gold Coast in the state’s southeast corner.

Originally published as Qld Covid: New airport concerns, Moree booted from border bubble as Goondiwindi cluster grows