Annastacia Palaszczuk won’t make a call on Queensland’s border until end of November
Annastacia Palaszczuk has stood by her commitment to wait until the end of November before making a call on opening Queensland’s border, despite NSW bringing down its barrier with Victoria in less than three weeks.
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Annastacia Palaszczuk won’t consider opening Queensland’s border early despite NSW announcing it would bring down its barrier with Victoria on November 23.
The Premier has stood firm on her commitment to wait until the end of November before making any further border decisions.
“I’ve said all along we will review those decisions at the end of the month,” she said on the Sunshine Coast.
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Ms Palaszczuk said Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young would be “looking very closely” at the results from Victoria during November before providing further health advice.
She said the key things Dr Young would be monitoring in NSW and Victoria were community transmission and if Victoria could continue to flatten the curve.
“What is encouraging from Victoria of course is the really low cases, zero I think they’ve had for a couple of days in a row but of course they’re coming out of lockdown so we’re going to be looking very carefully over the course of November to see how they go,” she said.
“Our number one goal is to keep Queenslanders safe.
“It’s worked well, we’re going to listen to Dr Young, we’re going to continue to listen to Dr Young and we’ll do whatever she says in terms of the next steps.”
It comes after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian set a target to open the state’s border with Victoria.
It is understood that one date being closely eyed by Premier Gladys Berejiklian to lift border restrictions is November 23.
That date would be four weeks after the end of the strict Melbourne lockdown.
Ms Berejiklian’s intention to ease border restrictions on November 23 is in contrast to the Queensland Premier’s staunch policy of reviewing her state’s border at the end of every month.
Following her re-election on Saturday, Annastacia Palaszczuk indicated that the policy would remain in place, meaning residents of Sydney and Victoria are to be locked out of Queensland until December.
Meanwhile, Queensland has recorded two new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours with both acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.
It comes after three new cases yesterday – both also in hotel quarantine – with a total of eight active cases across the state.
There have been 1177 confirmed cases in Queensland since the pandemic started with more than 1.25 million tests conducted.
It comes as Victoria’s fifth consecutive day of zero new coronavirus cases with the state’s 38 active cases dipping below New South Wales’ tally of 49.