Restrictions to ease early, masks to stay as QLD records no new local cases

While masks are here to stay for a while yet, some restrictions will ease early and community sport will be back on this weekend after Queensland recorded no new local Covid cases. Four cases were detected in hotel quarantine.

Restrictions will ease early for southeast Queenslanders after no new community cases were recorded overnight.

From 4pm Friday, 30 people will be allowed at private residences and outside, while community sport will be allowed back from Saturday with reduced spectators and in line with density requirements.

Weddings and funerals will go up to 100 people.

The easing of restrictions have been brought forward from the original date of 4pm Sunday and impact Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Lockyer, Somerset, Logan, Redland, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Noosa and Scenic Rim.

Capacity will increase to 75 per cent at ticketed events at stadiums and indoor and outdoor events, while restrictions put in place in Cairns and Yarrabah will also be lifted and match those across the rest of the state, outside southeast Queensland.

Masks will remain in place, however they will not need to be worn outdoors.

Ms Palaszczuk said it was crucial people wore them indoors and when people couldn’t social distance outside but in crucial change, will not have to wear them at office desks when they are sitting 1.5m away from others.

Queenslanders will still need to carry masks on them wherever they go.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Peter Wallis

“High school students in these areas will also be required to continue wearing masks in classroom settings for another week,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

“Make no mistake, Queenslanders must remain on high alert as Australia contends with the highly infectious COVID-19 delta variant.

“Keep up the great work Queensland: wear a mask, get tested if you have any symptoms, and get vaccinated when you can.”

The Queensland roadmap for easing restrictions.

Four new Covid cases were detected in hotel quarantine overnight and more than 2400 people remain in home quarantine following the state’s last outbreak.

Some 15,000 tests were undertaken yesterday and Ms Palaszczuk said 18,114 vaccines were administered by Queensland Health in the past day.

She said additional Pfizer doses from the Commonwealth had not yet arrived.

NSW today recorded a horror 633 new Covid cases, and sadly three new deaths and Ms Palaszczuk said the highly-infection Delta variant remained “a concern”.

Queensland will also shut the border to New Zealand from 1am tomorrow following a new case of Delta there with anyone arriving into Queensland after that time to undergo two weeks mandatory hotel quarantine.

The Premier said there will also be tighter restrictions for essential workers from NSW because there were still too many people crossing the NSW/Queensland border.

“We’ve strengthened our border, we’ve got extra police down there (NSW border),” she said.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the 633 cases in NSW today was “extraordinarily sad” and that some restrictions needed to remain in place.

Authorities are now going through to assess whether everyone crossing into Queensland from NSW was necessary to the state.

“We are just as concerned that we can see the cases moving closer and closer to our border,” she said.

“Anyone who lives in Queensland I put to you whether or not you should be crossing that border.”

It’s been 63 days since NSW reported its first case with more than 9000 cases having been reported since then.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said there had been very high levels of compliance in Queensland.

He said 5700 people tried to cross the border yesterday which was substantially down from the previous day.

He warned police would continue their rigid checking at the border.

Mr Gollschewski said Queensland Police would continue to show compassion around enforcement notices, but would not budge on the tough border blockade.

“If you get to that border and you can’t satisfy the conditions to enter you will not be entering,” he said.

Dr Young has asked the Director Generals of government departments to forensically assess what workers in their sectors would be classed as essential to cross the border.

She said she hoped “zero” essential workers would cross the NSW border, but acknowledged the lack of some skills in Queensland meant “we’re going to have to let those people in”.

“I do not want the risk of Delta coming into Queensland,” she said.

Dr Young also defended Queensland Health’s approach to the massive Indooroopilly cluster after The Courier-Mail revealed only “high-risk” people were given formal directions to quarantine.

“We only gave our directions to the person we were worried about,” she said.

“Yes, there were loopholes.

“That’s why things work in Queensland, people don’t need the letter of the law to do the right thing.”

Dr Young did not comment on the mandating of vaccines in the public service but called on people to take it upon themselves to get the jab.

“If people want to have freedom to go about their lives they need to be vaccinated,” she said.

“The people who aren’t vaccinated are going to have to minimise their lives to protect their own safety.”

Ms Palaszczuk denied Queensland was lagging in the vaccine rollout and said there were 100,000 people on a waiting list to get the jab.

“We need our community vaccinated,” she said.

Meanwhile, one of Queensland’s largest unions has accused the State Government of being at the “bottom end of employer behaviour” for not offering extra leave to get the jab, while claiming Queensland will struggle to reach the desired 80 per cent rate without it.

Secretary of the Together union Alex Scott said while the private sector was stepping up, the government wasn’t despite the state lagging behind other jurisdictions with vaccine take-up.

The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) recently told The Courier-Mail that some public servants were being encouraged to use their “flexi time” to get the jab, while many government agencies weren’t giving paid time off.

Mr Scott said it would get to a point where it would be hard to reach high vaccination rates unless government employees were offered additional leave.

Together secretary Alex Scott

“We don’t want people not getting vaccinated because they need to choose between getting vaccinated or picking up their kids,” he said.

The QCU, of which Together is an affiliate is pushing for two additional days leave so public servants can get the jab but also for if they suffer any side effects.

QCU general secretary Michael Clifford said other state governments, Brisbane City Council, NSW councils, most of the finance sector, major retailers and other private sector employers were setting the example.

He said the body would contact MPs over the next week to ask them to “help the many government workers in their electorate to get the time off work they need to get the jab”.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace earlier this month said she wasn’t aware of any public servant, including casuals, that had not been accommodated with “some sort of paid leave” to get the jab.