Qld home quarantine trial for children stuck interstate

Children stuck interstate will be allowed to return to Queensland under the state government’s first trial of home quarantine. Here’s what you need to know.

Queensland children stuck interstate and separated from family will be allowed to return under the state government’s first trial of home quarantine.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will on Tuesday announce that from next week Queensland children who go to boarding school interstate and have become stuck due to border closures will be allowed to go into home quarantine in a bid to reunite families.

The trial comes after the state government last week slammed hotel quarantine shut to people travelling from any hotspots due the system becoming overwhelmed.

It is also a shift in policy for the Premier, who last week said her government was not considering home quarantine at all.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks to the media on her way into the caucus meeting at Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Previously children seeking to return to Queensland would have to undergo hotel quarantine, with a parent required to undertake the 14-day stay with them.

Under the home quarantine trial, the child would be allowed to isolate at home, with the entire household expected to isolate for 14 days.

The state government will monitor the family with a tracking app, though details have not yet been made public.

The trial will apply to only a small cohort and does not apply to children who board in Queensland but live in an interstate hotspot.

The children must be stuck in an interstate hotspot without their parents to be eligible for the trial.

Ms Palaszczuk is understood to be writing to those that will be able to gain access to the scheme.

It’s understood the trial, if successful, could result in home quarantine being used more extensively in Queensland.

Children and teenagers who want to return to Queensland may be able to isolate at home under the trial. Picture: File image

Last week’s quarantine announcement was given with just two hours’ notice and was slammed by federal MPs who accused the Premier of abandoning Queenslanders.

But sport stars and, in the case of the NRL, their spouses and partners, have still been allowed in to the state.

On Monday alone it was revealed Australian and Indian cricketers had been allowed to quarantine in Queensland ahead of the women’s series while a chartered plane of NRL players’ families and officials landed in Brisbane in the afternoon.

The Premier had said the cricket players were operating outside the hotel quarantine program and therefore weren’t taking up the precious rooms.

Queensland recorded two cases of Covid-19 in hotel quarantine on Monday and zero locally-acquired infections.