Russian COVID-19 variant confirmed in five cases in Queensland hotel quarantine as wedding, funeral restrictions set to ease

Five people have been confirmed to have the Russian variant of COVID-19 in Queensland as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces further easing of restriction for weddings and funerals across the state from Monday.

No further cases were linked today to the Qatar Airways flight that landed in Brisbane last month but genome testing found five of the six positive COVID-19 cases, that were previously detected, are the Russian variant.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said health authorities had managed to track down all eight…