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Queensland to fully open borders to rest of Australia on Saturday
By Lydia Lynch
Queensland will remove all interstate border restrictions on Saturday after the state's chief health officer advised a cluster outbreak in Adelaide was no longer a threat.
It will be the first time the state has had no interstate border restrictions since Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk closed Queensland off to the rest of the country on March 26.
Brisbane Airport has been busy since the borders opened to Victoria and Sydney.Credit: Jono Searle/Getty
Queensland blocked travel from Adelaide on November 16 because of a rapidly growing cluster.
A total of 33 cases were linked to the Parafield cluster but there was no evidence of mystery cases, also known as unlinked community transmission.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said increased testing and South Australian health authorites' quick response was behind her decision to reopen.
"We saw that rapid escalation of cases initially and then they very quickly got on top of those cases, quarantined people and managed it," she said.
Saturday will mark 28 days since the first case in the cluster, which triggered the hotspot declaration.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said the border would open at 1am on Saturday, provided there were no unlinked cases between now and then.
"We have had 83 days since our last community-acquired case and we have had three cases over the last 24 hours, all acquired overseas and all detected in hotel quarantine," she said.
"The more out state opens up, the more we need to be vigilant."
Ms D'Ath said it was critical for people to continue to sign in at restaurants and bars so contact tracers could jump on any new outbreak.
The last case detected in South Australia was on November 29. Queensland reopened to the rest of the country on December 1.
Sydneysiders can also breathe a sigh of relief after Dr Young confirmed the threat of a Sydney outbreak appears to have passed.
A Sydney hotel quarantine worker tested positive for COVID-19 last week, prompting a massive testing effort in New South Wales.
"It was a great concern when it happened but now they have managed that, they have tested a lot of people and they have not found any other cases," Dr Young said.
"So they [NSW] have done a really quick rapid response so it is not a concern today."