Queensland has recorded no new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours for the first time in 49 days.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk thanked Queenslanders today for the “amazing job” they are doing in combating the virus.

“This is an absolutely tremendous effort,” she said.

“If we can keep this up over the coming weeks, I’m sure that that’s going to mean that we’ll be able to make some changes and ease some of those restrictions on the population.

“But we want to see this over a period of weeks,” she said.

There were also only a handful of cases in the previous few days bringing the states total to 1019.

Health Minister Steven Miles was cautiously optimistic.

“This is the reward for the effort we all put in over the Easter long weekend, it’s a fantastic result,” he said.

“Now we hope that we can sustain it.”

He warned, however, not to get complacent as other countries had seen second spikes in infections.

“We need to keep up our current approach but if we can sustain this then the end is in sight.”

The news comes after a Cairns health worker was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday causing the pathology lab at the Cairns Hospital where the person worked to be closed for a deep cleaning and all those who came in contact to be quarantined and tested.

However, the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) confirmed today that so far no one else connected had tested positive and the lab has now reopened.

Dr Richard Gair, Director, Tropical Public Health Services, CHHHS, said a highly cautious approach is being taken to eliminate any possible further spread.

“So far, we have received the results for 81 contacts of the pathology worker have been tested for COVID-19, and all have returned a negative result,” he said.

“Tropical Public Health Services is contacting people who are most at risk of transmission as part of its extensive contact tracing efforts and will identify if quarantine is necessary.”

The contact tracing associated with the pathology worker does not include any patients as there was no contact with the pathology worker.

Other people who spent time in the laboratory between 19 March and 17 April will also need to be assessed, although there is a low risk of transmission. These people are asked to please email Tropical Public Health Services with their name, phone number when they visited the laboratory, and for how long, to EOC_TRS_CNS@health.qld.gov.au. 

Continuing to practise good hygiene and social distancing is still vital in the fight against COVID-19.