Hotel quarantine escapee now in custody

A woman who must have thought she was Jessica Drew a.k.a Spider-Woman, scaled two balconies and smashed a door to escape hotel quarantine in Cairns.

Police have described the woman as “fairly motivated” in her bid to escape the Pacific International Hotel, where she was staying for her mandatory hotel quarantine period.

The woman had arrived at the hotel on 1 July and was found at her mother’s house later that night.

She is now in police custody after becoming the first person to successfully ‘make a break for it’ in a Queensland quarantine facility.

The Deputy Commissioner did point out that she is the first of many who have tried similar feats.

While the woman has tested negative for COVID-19, she will face charges.

The escape comes as Queensland’s positive new cases remain low, with only one case being recorded today – a 29-year-old student nurse who was a close contact of a man from Sinnamon Park who tested positive after he travelled to the Sunshine Coast.

The student has been quarantining since Monday and she is A-symptomatic, meaning health workers can't identify the start of her infectious period.

Queensland recorded 22,218 tests yesterday, with active cases totalling 49 and an extra 200,000 doses of Pfizer on their way in the coming weeks.

“We will be getting 64,350 Pfizer vaccines per week each week of July, that is the state allocation for our clinics,” Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said.

“This is 10,000 extra compared to what we were getting each week in June. For July, the state-run clinics will be getting an extra 40,000.”

Queensland health officials are confident outbreaks are under control as the state pushes for dedicated quarantine facilities in Brisbane and Toowoomba.

Assuming these would be high security facilities, it would take a brave person to escape from those, if and when they are built.

Irit Jackson, 6th July 2021