Close contact of COVID patient turned away from Queensland testing clinic as authorities grapple with ‘highest’ daily testing rate

A close contact of a COVID-infected patient at the centre of Greater Brisbane’s latest coronavirus cluster says he was forced to explain the urgency of his situation to healthcare workers and “demand” a test after he was initially turned away.

The 28-year-old Brisbane man said he was turned away from the Gladstone Emergency Department when he first presented to get tested, despite disclosing that a colleague he worked with had coronavirus.

Speaking in a post to social media, the man – who is now in quarantine in a Brisbane hospital and does not wish to be identified – said he was in Gladstone visiting family last week, when he received a call that his colleague had tested positive to the virus.