A WOMAN with COVID-19 was travelling from Townsville to Melbourne when she transited through Canberra Airport on October 7, reports ACT Health. 

The individual, who tested positive three days after arriving in Melbourne, was asymptomatic during her stopover at Canberra Airport from 8.30am and 10am and wore a mask on all flights and in the airport.

ACT Health is working with public health units in Victoria and Queensland to investigate and confirm her source of exposure, and contact tracing of flights is underway.

ACT Health is contacting passengers and crew on flight QF1543 from Brisbane to Canberra, who may have been in close contact with this particular passenger.

As a precaution, ACT Health is also advising anybody who was in the Canberra airport at Gate 13 or 14 during this period to watch for symptoms and if symptoms develop, isolate and get tested for COVID-19.

Although there is a low likelihood of virus transmission to Canberrans in this instance, as borders begin to open across Australia, this is a timely reminder that COVID-19 is still here and the situation can change quickly, ACT Health says.

There are currently no active COVID-19 cases in the ACT and the number of negative tests recorded in the ACT is now 99,760.