Cairns will emerge from a three-day lockdown at 4pm as planned, as Queensland records four new locally acquired virus cases linked to the cluster in Brisbane’s west.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said each of the new cases had been in quarantine for their entire infectious period, and good testing numbers in the far north meant restrictions could ease.
“Who would have thought a week ago we would be in this position today?” Ms Palaszczuk said on Wednesday.
Residents in the far north will now be subject to the same restrictions as southeast Queensland until August 22, including the masks mandate.
Cairns and the neighbouring Indigenous community of Yarrabah were ordered into a three-day lockdown at 4pm on Sunday after a taxi driver spent 10 days in the community while he was infectious.
On seven of those days the man was behind the wheel of his cab, driving passengers around the city. He was not vaccinated.
Residents have been flocking to testing centres since news of the case broke on Sunday.
Authorities have determined the cabbie caught the virus from a marine pilot he took to the Cairns Airport on July 26.
More than a dozen contact tracing sites dating back as far as July 23 were added overnight, including a far north shopping centre, Bunnings and a kebab shop.
Meanwhile, Queensland’s first mass vaccination hub is up and running at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Ms Palaszczuk said the centre was fully booked with 1500 appointments and would ramp up in coming weeks.
“I want to see Queenslanders come out and get vaccinated,” she said.
AAP
