Covid Qld: Early border reopening possible after vaccination tally
After not ruling out an early reopening, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to update the status of Queensland’s borders.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is today expected to reveal when Queensland’s borders will reopen for interstate travellers, and an early opening has not been ruled out.
The Premier yesterday did not rule out an early opening as she awaited updated figures on when Queensland would hit the crucial 80 per cent fully vaccinated mark.
As of Sunday, 78.17 per cent of Queenslanders were fully vaccinated.
Ms Palaszczuk said she would provide an update on the border opening this morning following new projections.
“We’ll have updated figures (on Monday) which will show when we’re expected to hit that 80 per cent (fully vaccinated), so we’ll be very closely watching those numbers.”
Ms Palaszczuk welcomed the announcement on Sunday that the Therapeutic Goods Administration had approved jabs for children aged five to 11.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the approval was the first of the critical steps that “focused on the safety and effectiveness of vaccinating children”.
“They have made a careful, thorough assessment, determined that it is safe and effective and that it is in the interests of children and Australians for children five to 11 to be vaccinated,” he said.
“Our batch-testing team, our TGA team, will be working right through Christmas, right through the new year and a provisional expectation at this stage is that we have been able to bring forward the commencement of the paediatric doses or the children’s doses to 10 January.”
Ms Palaszczuk said she raised this as an option months ago and it had been dismissed.
Queensland recorded six new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, all detected in quarantine.
Five of the new cases were interstate arrivals, while the sixth was a person who had come to Australia from the Philippines.
It comes as Australians have been told to keep calm despite increasing fears about the new Omicron Covid-19 variant, which has spread to 15 people across three states and territories.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg urged Australians to stay the course of the national reopening plan amid widespread anxiety about the new strain.
“I don’t think we should be panicking,” he said in an interview with the ABC yesterday.
“Everyone should keep their heads and we should be calmly and safely reopening as we have been.”
Mr Frydenberg said while it was too early to make any conclusive decisions or estimates about the Omicron variant, preliminary investigations suggested it might not be as destructive as originally feared.
“We do know it’s transmissible – highly transmissible,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“But there’s early signs it may be less severe than the Delta variant.
“And there’s no evidence as yet that our vaccines are not a defence against it.”
