AN aged care home in north Rockhampton with hundreds of staff and beds has been locked down after a worker tested positive for coronavirus.
It is understood the affected nurse travelled from Brisbane and continued to work despite having mild respiratory symptons.
It is also believed the nurse had been infectious since May 3.
Heath minister Steven Miles said authorities were conducting extensive contact tracing to ascertain who might have been exposed to the nurse.
Staff are being tested and quarantined.
It is the first coronavirus case in Rockhampton in more than six weeks and Mr Miles said it presented an "important lesson".
"This underlines that even after long periods of time without active cases, things can turn very, very quickly," he said.
"It is an important lesson (that) we don't know where the next case will happen."
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said officials were trying to "clarify" the exact circumstances of the outbreak.
"We know that the health care worker is living in the community and they will have been out in the community. We need to see if there are any other cases in Rockhampton that have occurred as a result of this particular individual," Ms Young said.
In a television interview Dr Young told Channel 9: "We need to see whether there are any other cases that have occurred in Rockhampton as a result of this particular individual.
"Rockhampton has not had an active case for a number of weeks so this is brand-new.
"It's very, very concerning."