WATCH: Spider crawling on minister halts Australian Covid briefing

A Covid health briefing in Australia was momentarily halted after a large spider was spotted crawling over Queensland’s Health Minister Yvette D’Ath.

D’Ath was busy delivering her regular Covid-19 health briefing when reporters spotted a large huntsman spider crawling on her.

“Can someone please get that spider off?” D’Ath calmly asked after the arachnid was pointed out to her.

Huntsman spiders are usually large, with a leg span of up to 15cm. They are also venomous, but are reluctant to bite and are not considered dangerous.

“This shows how controlled I can be. I don’t like huntsmans but I’m going to keep going and I’m going to pretend I don’t have a huntsman on me right now,” D’Ath joked.

“If it gets anywhere near my face, please let me know.”

The sign language interpreter and another man then tried to help the health minister.

“Well that was a moment, wasn’t it? We’ve got Covid and we’ve got huntsmans,” D’Ath said as the spider was chased off.

Later that day, D’Ath posted on Twitter: “Update – no spiders were harmed during the press conference”.

She also joked about holding an outdoor press conference in summer, with a clip showing the spider moving up her leg.

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