Brisbane residents allowed to enter NT, ACT once more

Two major jurisdictions have become the first to allow travel from Brisbane to return, while other regions have so far held firm.

The Northern Territory’s chief health officer Hugh Heggie on Monday revoked Greater Brisbane’s hotspot status. Picture: Che Chorley

Travellers from Brisbane will be allowed to return to the Northern Territory and ACT as of Monday morning after the city’s hotspot status was revoked. But the states have so far not lifted the ban.

As of 11am, residents from Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and Redlands council areas were able to enter the NT.

ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman also announced Greater Brisbane will no longer be classified as a hotspot, meaning anyone who had been in the region on or after January 2 will no longer be required to quarantine.

The NT chief health officer’s decision to revoke the status comes after Queensland recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the third day in a row.

However Victoria said greater Brisbane will remain off-limits, as did Tasmania.

“In terms of Brisbane, while the restrictions that have been imposed for greater Brisbane come off at 6pm tonight, the public health team is not 100 per cent confident we can have people from Brisbane returned to Victoria,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said Monday afternoon.

“We will again monitor that each day — there are still many close contacts that have not been tested, it’s a relatively new outbreak we are very pleased for our friends in Queensland with such positive results over the weekend, many tests and no additional cases.

“But the (Victorian) public health team is not yet … comfortable to have people from the greater Brisbane area coming back to Melbourne or travelling to Melbourne regardless of where they might live. Again that will be updated daily, late in the week hope to have more to say about Sydney and Brisbane.”

Tasmania’s ban on incoming travellers from Brisbane also remains, although Tasmania’s Health Minister Sarah Courtney said those who arrived in the state before 9am on January 8 did not pose a risk and could now resume normal activities.

Those in Tasmania who arrived after 9am on January 8 must remain in quarantine for at least a further 48 hours, until Wednesday afternoon.

The state’s Director of Public Health Dr Mark Veitch said Tasmania would continue to monitor the situation daily.

Victoria’s restrictions on those from greater Sydney also remains but it will open its borders to regional NSW from 5.59pm Monday. It comes as Victoria moves to a traffic light system for coronavirus risk.

The Northern Territory and Tasmania also still consider Greater Sydney a hotspot.

Brisbane will come out of lockdown at 6pm on Monday night after three days, in what was an attempt to stop any spread of the UK variant of the virus throughout the community.

The lockdown was imposed after a hotel quarantine worker contracted the highly contagious mutation.

On Friday, all states and territories labelled Brisbane a hotspot. 

Western Australia has since made no changes to its border stance with Queensland, with all arrivals required to quarantine. It earlier indicated Queensland will have to pass a 28-day run of no community transmission before its border closure is relaxed.

South Australia also still lists Greater Brisbane as a “COVID-19 and High Community Transmission Zone”, with travellers needing to quarantine.

NSW has not updated its website for border restrictions against Queensland.

Originally published as Brisbane residents allowed to enter NT, ACT once more