Noosa's world famous main beach. The teens were arrested at a nearby shopping centre on Monday. (Image by Mark Freidin from Pixabay)
Noosa had its own Covid-19 scare on Monday when police arrested two teenagers who allegedly lied to cross the border to Queensland.
Stunned shoppers at Noosa Civic shopping centre witnessed multiple police vehicles arriving to apprehend the pair, aged just 15 and 16, around midday. The girls were given face masks to wear and taken for Covid-19 testing.
Several shops in the centre were forced to close and arrange for cleaning. The incident prompted a wave of rumour, panic and anger on local Facebook pages.
Police later confirmed they had arrested the pair after a 24 hour search on the belief they had lied about where they had been in New South Wales.
“They weren’t completely honest with where they had been but later on we discovered they had come from a hotspot,” said Superintendent Craig Hawkins.
While the girls were immediately taken for testing for Covid-19, police said they displayed no symptoms of the disease and there was no evidence as yet that they were carrying the virus.
It is understood one of the girls is from NSW, while the other is a Queensland resident.
Police allege the two girls had recently visited Sydney, which when they arrived in Brisbane by train on Friday was a declared coronavirus hotspot. If true, one of the girls should have been denied entry to the state, while the other should have gone into mandatory hotel quarantine for 14-days at their own expense, according to the strict border control rules Queensland has in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from its southern neighbour.
By Saturday, all of NSW was officially a labelled hotspot by Queensland, with all its residents barred from entering the Sunshine State.
After arriving in Brisbane, the girls made their way to the Sunshine Coast, where police caught up with them in the world famous tourist destination of Noosa. Police said new information came to light about the pair’s travels after their arrival in the state, sparking the 24 hour manhunt.
The girls, Noosa and the rest of Queensland now await their test results.
The Noosa Covid-19 scare occurred on the same day that Queensland’s chief medical officer said she was highly confident their was no community transmission in the state. Her comments came after eight straight days of the state recording no such instances. The run follows a scare some two weeks ago when two south Brisbane women tested positive after lying about returning from Victoria.