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  • Queensland Premier eases Brisbane virus restrictions

    Author: AAP

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will ease coronavirus restrictions in Greater Brisbane, but the recent outbreak is likely to remain a mystery.

Coronavirus restrictions such as the mandatory wearing of masks will be eased in Brisbane, but the reason for an outbreak that lead to rules being tightened may never be known.

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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says there were no new locally-transmitted cases of COVID-19 to report on Thursday after 7410 tests, meaning restrictions on Greater Brisbane will lift from 1am on Friday.

She announced people will no longer have to wear masks in public indoor areas, and social distancing will return to one person per two square metres.

Dancing and gatherings of up to 50 people in private homes and 100 people in public will be allowed, and seated ticketed venues will return to 100 per cent capacity.

"Of course yesterday we said we were 100 per cent on track to have our restrictions lifted at 1am tomorrow morning, and I can confirm that is exactly what is going to happen at 1am tomorrow morning," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters.

However, Queensland police say the source of the cluster at a Brisbane quarantine hotel that initially led to the restrictions being imposed may never be known.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll says an interim report will instead offer different possible scenarios about how the UK strain of COVID-19 spread between four guests and a hotel cleaner at the Grand Chancellor earlier this month.

The cleaner spread the virus to her partner, and the couple were in the community while infectious, which resulted in a snap three-day lockdown of 3.5 million people in Greater Brisbane.

Commissioner Carroll says the report is unlikely to pinpoint a particular incident and will instead put forward possibilities and make general recommendations on how to tighten up procedures at all hotels.

She used the example of police finding that the Grand Chancellor didn't have CCTV cameras on level seven, where the transmission occurred, and how they later audited camera in all quarantine hotels.

"We mightn't know exactly how that transpired on that day but there will be some good scenarios of how it could have happened and there will be many learnings for all of us," Commissioner Carroll told 4BC radio.

She said police still hadn't interviewed everyone on level seven, so there could be more information revealed about the outbreak before the final report is handed down.

Commissioner Carroll denied that there was any evidence a person linked to the outbreak had done the wrong thing or lied about their movements.

"No one's purposely done the wrong thing, because we're all trying to do the right thing, and I think the best we can do is to learn from this and make sure it does not happen again because travellers are going to keep coming back from overseas ... and people are people," she said.

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