Coronavirus Qld: No new cases as restrictions target reached

Queenslanders have been warned against meeting friends from Sydney in the newly reopened border zones, as the state’s top doctor confirms the decision to lift remaining NSW border restrictions will not be made until October 31, the day Queensland goes to the polls.

Queenslanders have been warned against meeting with friends from Sydney in the newly reopened border zones, such as Byron Bay as the state is set to enjoy an easing of public health restrictions in the Greater Brisbane area after another day of no new cases of pandemic virus.

The decision means lockdowns on aged care and disability accommodation services will be removed, hospital visitor restrictions will be relaxed, and private gatherings of up to 30 people will be allowed, bringing the region in line with the rest of the state.
Queensland has not had an infectious case of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, in the community since September 10.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the restrictions would be eased from 1am Friday.

“People can go ahead and organise that house party for Friday night,” he said.

Mr Miles said Queensland Health would not progress with an option to use Central Queensland fly-in fly-out work camps as an option for compulsory quarantine.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said requirements for increased use of personal protective equipment in hospitals would be lifted.

She said the latest cluster had revealed that household transmission was the biggest risk for transmission of the virus.

But Dr Young warned against people becoming complacent, saying the virus would continue to pose “an ongoing risk”.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Health Steven Miles with Dr Jeannette Young. Picture: Annette Dew

“We know that around 20 per cent of people are totally asymptomatic, they never ever get symptoms but they can pass it on,” she said.

“We can’t say 14 days after not having an infectious case in the community that we mightn’t still get a case going forward. We could have missed a case somewhere.

“I have seen that people have stopped wearing masks again. If you’re in an environment that you can’t socially distance, you should still be wearing a mask. That is one thing I would like to see people starting to practice a little bit more of. I think that might have to be a new way of living for the foreseeable future.”

Queensland will throw its borders open to five new NSW council areas from October 1, with all Queenslanders allowed to travel to those regions without the need to quarantine when coming home.

Those local government areas, which are populated by more than 150,000 NSW residents, include Byron, Ballina and Lismore.

NSW residents living in those areas will also be allowed to visit anywhere in Queensland, but border declaration passes will be mandatory.

Dr Young urged people to think again if they had plans to take advantage of the change to meet up with Sydney friends south of the border.

“That is not the intent of the border zone. It’s not really designed for people to meet up there,” she said.

“The intent of the border zone is people who live there, because we know they have that strong relationship with Queensland, to be able to come into Queensland.

“We are seeing reduced number of cases in Sydney. The risk is decreasing. Having said that, I still don’t think that’s ideal.”

The state’s top doctor confirmed that, at this stage, the decision to lift remaining NSW border restrictions would not be made until October 31.

NSW is expected to reach 28 days of no new community transmission on October 6 – the benchmark the government set to reopen the border to Queensland’s southern neighbours.

Dr Young confirmed today that their “current protocol” would be to wait until October 31 to make a decision on the borders if NSW reaches that 28 day mark on October 6.

“They (Sydney) had their last case of unlinked transmission back on the 8th of September,” she said.

“So the risk is decreasing.”

Dr Young admitted she was surprised health authorities had been able to contain Queensland’s latest cluster to 55 cases, given infections had occurred in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, Staines Memorial College, Ipswich Hospital and the Karinya Place aged care facility in Laidley.

“When I saw where we got those cases, and where they were spreading, I was amazed that we managed to contain it,” she said.

Despite the latest easing of restrictions, Dr Young hosed down a push by the tourism and cruise ship industries for the possibility of “Queensland-only cruises” to be allowed to operate from the new Brisbane International Cruise Terminal during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We know that in the past, we always saw outbreaks of norovirus, we’ve seen outbreaks of flu, so it’s not surprising that you would see outbreaks of COVID, so really they are not safe,” she said.

Meanwhile, a coronavirus vaccine could be available six months earlier after a groundbreaking study proposed by a Brisbane public health student was approved.

Sophie Rose, a Brisbane Girls Grammar graduate, was behind a campaign to have volunteers deliberately infected with coronavirus to fast-track the testing of vaccines.

Now the British government has given it the green light.