Cairns and Yarrabah have entered their first full day of a three-day snap lockdown following a surprise case of COVID-19 detected in a local taxi driver.

Contact tracers are now trying to track down passengers who may have travelled in the Kanimbla man's vehicle between July 28 and August 5.

He also attended other sites now on the Queensland exposure list, including a cafe, a dental practice and the local Raintrees Shopping Centre. Check out the full list here.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has now confirmed the taxi driver case was linked to the reef pilot who tested positive in Cairns' northern beaches last week.

The pilot was a passenger in the person's taxi.

 

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"So if there is anything reassuring it's that we're getting a bit of a handle on how this person may have contracted the virus," Cairns MP Michael Healy said.

"We've made the assumption that it is Delta and hence the lockdown."

The director of Cairns Taxis Layne Garnder said ride dispatch information will be given to Queensland Health to assist in contact tracing.

"Our dispatch system is such that we can identify every job that the gentleman did, the contact details, if they phoned so that we can help Queensland Health contact the people he's been in contact with. 

"If he picked up a hail from the street we can assist them with the address that they were dropped off at, a lot of the data that we have that we would be very happy to pass on.

Mr Gardner said prior to lockdown, drivers were not required to wear masks unless they were outside their cars at the airport.

The unvaccinated man in his 60s has been flown to Brisbane for treatment.

The man was one of nine new cases in Queensland on Sunday — most others were linked to the Indooroopilly outbreak in Brisbane and were in quarantine during their infectious periods.

No new locally acquired cases were reported in Cairns on Monday.

24-hour wait for test results

Ms Palaszczuk said the man's positive test was unexpected, and he had been infectious in the community for a number of days.

"The region needs to get on top of the matter very, very quickly," she said.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Tina Chinery said the 971 tests performed by Queensland Health staff yesterday have all returned negative results.

But they are still waiting for nearly 1,000 test results to come in from private clinics.

"Being Cairns, we have lots of flights that go to Brisbane so we have samples that go down and at the moment we understand the wait time's around 24 hours for our private providers," she said.

The health service's acting medical director Grant Howard said they have contacted all high-risk close contacts of the taxi driver.

'This could have spread'

The three-day lockdown for Cairns and Yarrabah is due to end at 4:00pm on Wednesday, August 11. 

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she hoped the three days would be enough to contain the spread of coronavirus in Far North Queensland.

"There is a real risk this already could have spread," she said.

Acting Chief Superintendent Chris Hodgman said most people have been complying with the rules so far, with non-compliance only occurring when people were unaware of the new restrictions.

"There are areas of concern mainly because a lot of people don't stay up to date with what's in the directions," he said.

He said police spoke to 168 people and performed compliance checks on 20 businesses, but had only handed out five masks.

Terry James, Cairns deputy mayor and chairperson of the Local Disaster Management Group, said local businesses had already suffered due to lockdowns elsewhere.

"Unfortunately, this will cause a lot of damage to a lot of local businesses," he said.

New COVID-19 testing sites were set up along The Esplanade at the Cairns Hospital, and  testing clinics in Portsmith and Woree were open for extended hours.

Mr James said the message was quite clear: "If you're OK stay at home, if you're feeling unwell get tested at one of the testing stations."

Queues for COVID tests

Vai Jack joined the COVID testing line on the Esplanade on Sunday after finding out the infected taxi driver had been to Brothers Leagues Club, where she worked.

"I'm feeling stressed and paranoid right now, because he came to our workplace at Brothers and now we all have to get tested," she said.

"I'm kind of glad that we are going into lockdown to be honest, so that will help to prevent it from spreading.

While the southern and international lockdowns have been hurting tourism and hospitality business across the far north, a local lockdown could be the final nail in a lot of local businesses who had been relying on locals to keep their doors open.

Nic Spano, the manager of the Villa Romana Restaurant on The Esplanade, said the restaurant was complying with new restrictions and only offering takeaway meals.

"We are hoping to keep supplying takeaway until we can get out of lockdown," he said.

"All of Cairns has been affected by the southern and international lockdowns, but there is nothing we can do.

"Going into a local lockdown has us all feeling a little overwhelmed."

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