New unit to deal with health exemptions on Queensland's border

Queensland's Premier will set up a unit this week to field medical exemption requests for NSW residents needing treatment across the border.

The announcement follows a string of controversial cases, including an expectant Ballina mother who lost one of her unborn twins last week.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed the state's prison cluster is still growing.

Queensland Health have said the woman did not need an exemption to enter the state for emergency care, but the woman's father believed it would have taken too long to “jump through the hoops” to enter Queensland, and so his daughter was sent to Sydney instead.

A hotline will be set up to help co-ordinate medical transfers and reduce confusion about who can cross the border.

"So we're going to set up this hotline to make sure that we can deal with these – to co-ordinate with the families in a timely manner and then they'll be prioritised with the chief health officer," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

“Of course, it's going to be like this for some time because our borders are closed to protect the health of Queenslanders.

“But we are not going to deny emergency treatment to people in New South Wales and we are not going to deny specialist appointments to people who need the specialist appointments in Queensland."

Ms Palaszczuk doubled down on her tough border stance after a poll revealed most people supported the closures.

The Newspoll, published in The Australian on Monday, showed 84 per cent of Queenslanders backed border closures.

Ms Palaszczuk said the state would stay locked down to interstate arrivals from NSW, Victoria and the ACT to “keep Queenslanders safe”.

“I'm not going to be moved on this,” she said.

“So the federal government can throw whoever they want at that, we can have Clive Palmer as well, but I'm not going to be moved because fundamentally the health of Queenslanders is my number one concern and you can't have a strong economy, you can't have the economy growing, unless you have the health under control.”

Cluster grows

A Queensland prison coronavirus cluster has grown to 24 cases after another person tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday.

Ms Palaszczuk said the single new case was “very positive news”.

She said the person was a close contact of another confirmed case linked to the outbreak at the state’s corrective services academy.

"In the last 24 hours, over 6800 tests were conducted and once again we encourage anyone who has any symptoms to, please, go and get tested," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"It is absolutely imperative to go and get tested."

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the new case presented a "relatively low risk of continued spread".

"They had been identified as a close contact already and were in quarantine at the time in which they became infectious and so they're only thought to have been in the community for just two days," he said.

Health authorities on Sunday confirmed a link between separate clusters at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and the Queensland Corrective Services Academy.

The two facilities, in the Brisbane suburb of Wacol, are about three kilometres apart.