Covid Qld: New border turmoil as all of NSW locked down

Extra police are being sent to the Queensland-NSW border after the whole of the southern state was plunged into a snap seven-day lockdown, causing chaos for tens of thousands of people in border communities.

The Queensland-NSW border zone has been plunged deeper into turmoil, with all of NSW going into lockdown for seven days from 5pm.

Extra police are being sent to the border, with the lockdown causing chaos for tens of thousands of people in nearby communities.

Police will ramp up patrols on the border checkpoints to stop anyone from NSW entering the state after the Berejiklian Government imposed the drastic state-wide stay-at-home order on following a record 466 new cases of Covid-19.

Previously only parts of northern NSW were in lockdown including Byron Bay, Ballina and Lismore local government areas.

Traffic on the Gold Coast Highway at the police checkpoint in Coolangatta

But the tough new lockdown will now also apply to Tweed Shire, with almost 100,000 residents - many of whom have been able to cross the border for work, study, medical appointments.

Many Queensland residents, particularly on the southern Gold Coast, also work in northern NSW.

The Palaszczuk Government is expected to respond to the lockdown by banning all but emergency service, health workers and freight drivers from crossing the border.

Dozens of NSW-based Queensland teachers and childcare workers were last week reclassified as non-essential and will not be able to cross the border to work from Monday.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told The Sunday Mail: “Extra police will patrol the border and very few will be able to cross.

“This is unavoidable. We will do all we can to keep Queensland safe.

“People need to comply with these orders to stay home like we (in South East Queensland and Cairns) did and stop this virus from spreading.”

Ms Palaszczuk revealed a request was made to the Berejiklian Government before the lockdown to expand the border ‘bubble’ south to the Tweed River to ease disruption, but it had fallen on deaf ears.

“We were working on an arrangement to minimise impacts on border communities but got no answer,’ she said.

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Member for Tweed MP Geoff Provest said the lockdown would be ‘onerous’ for local residents but had to be imposed after NSW reported a record 466 new Covid cases on Saturday.

Mr Provest said it was up to Queensland to respond to how it would impact on the thousands of Tweed residents who crossed the border for work, school and medical appointments.

“I’m still hopeful they’ll be able to travel across for essential reasons but that’s up to Queensland,” he said.

“This is a serious situation we’ve found ourselves in and we have to do all we can to contain the outbreak.”