Qld border passes: 245 quarantine hotel rooms for 8310 applicants

With stranded Queenslanders and lockdown-weary southerners making a beeline for the Sunshine State, police are overwhelmed.

Police admit they are struggling to cope with a flood of border pass applications from thousands of stranded Queenslanders desperate to return home and lockdown-weary southerners seeking to flee to the Sunshine State, with a massive shortfall in hotel quarantine rooms revealed.

Shock new police figures show a backlog of more than 8300 border pass applications and just 245 hotel quarantine rooms available.

Frontline Queensland Health workers are among those stranded for weeks and even months interstate, including an advanced care paramedic and a Bundaberg Hospital radiographer.

Police have revealed a staggering 8310 border declaration pass applications from returning Queenslanders and would-be interstate migrants are yet to be assessed, blaming the backlog on severely restricted hotel quarantine spots and a large number of people submitting duplicate applications.

Only about 700 are being processed a week and with just 245 hotel quarantine rooms available, many applicants are facing lengthy and frustrating waits stuck in Covid-ravaged NSW and Victoria.

Queensland paramedic Bryce Hill has been stranded in Melbourne for two weeks after flying south to farewell his dying mother and attend her funeral, while Bundaberg Hospital radiographer Mikayla Brown has been stuck in regional NSW since July after a family visit.

A Queensland Police Service spokesman said there had been 11,137 border pass applications in the last month alone, including 3943 from returning Queenslanders.

“As of October 1, there remains 8,310 applications awaiting processing by our assessment team,” the spokesman said.

“Applications are assessed in chronological order with the assessment team advising applicants once a hotel quarantine vacancy becomes available.

“We do ask applicants to be patient while we process each request which includes verifying supporting documents which are submitted with each application.

“Applicants are advised to only submit one application with more than 18,000 applications identified as being duplicated, slowing down the process.

“The QPS acknowledges the difficult situation many people are faced with in Covid hot spots in NSW and Victoria, however, remains committed to reducing the risk of the virus spreading into Queensland.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk this week defended the border pass logjam, saying it was a ‘difficult time for everyone’ and there were ‘thousands of people applying for exemptions’ from hotel quarantine.

She said staff numbers in Queensland Health’s exemption unit had been boosted.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said Queensland’s quarantine hotels were experiencing ‘high demand’

“We know border restrictions are inconvenient and can cause disruption to people’s lives and livelihoods,” she said.

“We must balance these factors against the serious health risk to more than five million Queenslanders.

“The aim of the strict border is to limit the number of people entering Queensland who could potentially import COVID-19 into our state, which we know could be catastrophic leading to more lock downs and even tighter control measures.”