Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the state’s chief medical officer, Dr Jeannette Young, will front the media today, to talk about Nathan Turner, a 30-year-old who tested positive for Covid after he died, but in later tests, was found to have been negtative for Covid.
At 30, Nathan was thought to be the youngest person in Australia to die after contracting Covid. He had what was described as a “complicated†medical history, and had been displaying respriatory symptoms for weeks leading up to his death in his Blackwater home. A second test for Covid proved negative, but was said to have been contaminated, and was ignored.
No other cases of Covid have been reported in Blackwater.
As AAP reports:
Queensland Health said Mr Turner – who had serious underlying health issues – tested positive for the virus after he died and his partner reported he’d had flu-like symptoms.
But on Monday, officials said a subsequent test had returned a negative result.
Locals are seeking answers, and an online petition demanding an apology from the premier and chief health officer has attracted more than 2500 signatures.
Late yesterday, Queensland authorities confirmed later testing on Nathan had proved negative. The coroner will determine his cause of death.
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese is continuing to campaign with Labor’s Eden-Monaro candidate, Kristy McBain.
He has an event scheduled with her at 10am.
Greg Hunt will announce $66m for Covid vaccine development and treatment today.
That 11am announcement comes with a tour of Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Updated
Good morning
The Berejiklian government plan to freeze public servant pay has hit a snag, with the Australian Paramedics Association protesting the move by not billing patients.
The union said:
For months we have put our health and our lives on the line in the Covid-19 pandemic, prior to that we worked through months of fires and then floods.
Despite this, all the NSW government has for us is empty words.
There will be moves afoot in the parliament to stop the pay freeze hitting frontline workers, which includes paramedics. It’s the same issue Queensland has run into.
Speaking of Queensland, another legal challenge to open the border is underway. As AAP reports:
“We are arguing that the Queensland government did not have the constitutional right to shut the border,†Mahoneys litigation partner Mitchell Downes said in a statement on the firm’s website.
He said the move was part of a wider effort to help Queensland’s tourism industry recover from the effects that Covid-19 had had on the industry and businesses and people that rely on it.
A Gofundme page has been set up to fund the challenge and allow the plaintiffs to start the case in the high court “as soon as possibleâ€.
The Australian reported the challenge had been lodged on Monday, with six plaintiffs including a Brisbane travel agency and a Cairns charter operator, plus interstate individuals and a company.â€
There is still the challenge that Pauline Hanson has threatened, plus Clive Palmer was adding Queensland to his Western Australia challenge, so all in all, the high court seems like it will be asked to deal with this one way or the other.
We’ll have that, and everything else that happens today. You have Amy Remeikis for the majority of the day.
Ready?
Updated
