Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirms border declaration reinstated as Melbourne COVID fears grow

Travellers from Melbourne could be barred from Queensland amid growing fears Victoria’s COVID-19 crisis will again spiral out of control.

Travellers from Melbourne could be barred from Queensland amid growing fears Victoria’s COVID-19 crisis will again spiral out of control.

Queensland has reinstated the border declaration pass for travellers from Victoria as Melbourne’s Holiday Inn cluster jumps to ten cases – with authorities fearing the virus may already be circulating in the community.

From 1am on Saturday Victorians travelling to Queensland must sign a border pass and declare they have not attended an exposure site linked to the Melbourne cluster.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said it was “too early” to declare Melbourne a hotspot but said the government was watching the situation closely.

“All of those cases at this stage were contracted within the (Melbourne Holiday Inn) hotel quarantine on level three,” he said.

“There’s been no cases of community transmission.”

Steven Miles said it was “too early” to declare Melbourne a hotspot but said the government was watching the situation closely. Pic Annette Dew

Mr Miles said the reintroduction of the declaration pass was to ensure Queensland was “getting systems right” and collecting information about people coming from Victoria.

“It appears to me that Victoria is doing a very, very good job of responding to that situation … in some ways that makes our job a little bit easier,” he said.

Acting Chief Health Officer Sonya Bennett said eight people had been in the Melbourne community for several days while infectious.

“We’ll be watching as well to see if there is any transmission in the community,” she said.

One person who returned to Queensland after quarantining at the Holiday Inn has returned a negative test, Dr Bennett said.

Queensland recorded one new case of COVID-19, a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.

It takes the total number of active cases to six, with 7762 tests in the past 24 hours.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said police would meet flights from Victoria and conduct spot checks of travellers.

A hard border will not be established, but Victorians crossing into Queensland by road must sign a declaration pass.

People who have travelled to Queensland from the Greater Melbourne area since February 5 must get tested and isolate until they receive a result.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, speaking in Melbourne, said the Commonwealth was supporting Victoria to manage the latest outbreak.

He refused to be drawn on whether border changes should be made.

“They’re matters for states,” he said.

“I’ve always been an advocate of the hotspot approach and making that as localised as possible because that’s what keeps Australia open.”

Mr Morrison said although the hotel quarantine program had suffered “shocks along the way”, it had facilitated 211,000 people with only a handful of cases.

“This is a system the rest of the world wants to replicate,” he said.