New case in Goondiwindi as Qld rejects Doherty data

Queensland has recorded one new case of COVID-19 in Goondiwindi,while Cairns,on alert after a local woman tested positive in the Northern Territory on Friday night,is in the clear.

The Goondiwindi case,a woman in her 20s,was a close contact of one of the three people who tested positive in the border community this week.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the case was in home quarantine when diagnosed and,despite initial concerns,was not infectious in the community at any time.

A relaxed acting Chief Health Officer Peter Aitken said Goondiwindi’s high vaccination rates and the fact the woman was a close contact of a known case meant there was no thought of placing the town under lockdown.

The Queensland cluster is linked to a larger outbreak south of the border in Moree. The town was declared a restricted border zone on Friday,meaning Queenslanders could only cross into the closely linked community under special circumstances.

Dr Aitken flagged the possibility of exposure sites in Cairns resulting from a woman who had flown from the city and tested positive in the Northern Territory,which is managing a fresh cluster of its own.

However,NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said in a later press conference on Saturday that the 21-year-old was a close contact of the Northern Territory’s index case.

She arrived in Darwin on October 29 and became infectious on November 3. She had only received one dose of a vaccine,Mr Gunner said.

Ms D’Ath meanwhile knocked back new modelling from the Doherty Institute suggesting states could safely manage international arrivals without them needing to quarantine once the state hit a double-dose rate of 80 per cent.