Coronavirus Qld: Elderly bus passengers stopped at border
Almost 100 people have been ordered into self-funded quarantine during an 11th-hour rush before the Queensland border closes. Two elderly people were taken off a bus trying to enter the state.
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Almost 100 people have been ordered into quarantine on the Gold Coast after rushing to cross the border before it closes to NSW and the ACT.
Police said 72 people had been ordered into 14-day self-funded hotel quarantine after being intercepted at the five Gold Coast road border checkpoints.
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Another 23 who flew in to Gold Coast Airport were also placed in quarantine after having travelled from a declared COVID hotspot.
Police said another 54 people were turned around at the border.
An elderly NSW woman booted off an interstate bus at a Gold Coast checkpoint for having spent one hour in COVID-19 hot spot Sydney says Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk should be ashamed of herself.
Karen Warren was one of three people, including a sick 78-year-old man, ejected from the coach at Coolangatta.
Police boarded the Premier Motor Service bus this morning and removed 69-year-old Ms Warren, Gold Coast pensioner Graham McKerlie and a young unidentified man who was too upset to talk.
They were refused entry to Queensland and their luggage was removed.
The trio had travelled from Eden on the NSW coast but stopped in Sydney, which was declared a COVID-19 hotspot last weekend by the Queensland Government.
Ms Warren, from Merimbula on the NSW South Coast, said she had been on her way to visit her son in Brisbane.
She initially said she understood why the Government was being tough on travellers.
But as the reality of her plight sank in, she unleashed on Ms Palaszczuk, saying the border should not have been completely closed.
“We’ve driven 25 hours to get here and she closed the bloody border… she should be ashamed of herself,” Ms Warren said.
“She should be ashamed of herself. She’s got no empathy.”
Mr McKerlie, who lives at Mudgeeraba in the Gold Coast hinterland, appeared close to tears after being taken off the bus.
“I have a breathing problem, I can’t afford the money (for hotel quarantine),” he said as he sat on a kerbside seat with his luggage and walking stick.
Police called an ambulance to take Mr McKerlie to hospital.
Ms Palaszczuk has said she makes no apologies her Government’s tough border stance.
By this afternoon traffic had slowed to a crawl at the Gold Coast border checkpoints, with long delays as motorists rushed to beat the 1am deadline when Queensland is shut to NSW and ACT residents.
Gold Coast police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said delays of more than an hour were being experienced at the checkpoints on the Pacific Motorway and Gold Coast Highway.
“Delays today have been very predictably slow,” he said.
“The M1 and Gold Coast Highway, as usual in these (changes hotspot) circumstances, have been quite lengthy delays – upwards over an hour.
“I anticipate that will get worse as the day goes on. And certainly, as we get into the evening, there will be that last rush of particularly Queensland residents coming home.”
Supt Wheeler said thousands of Queenslanders had rushed to get home before the 1am deadline.
But he warned those who missed the cut-off would be turned around at the checkpoints and forced to come back by air.
Supt Wheeler said it was hoped a new cross-border resident pass, allowing people from the Gold Coast and Tweed to come and go freely between the two local government areas, would be ready this afternoon.
