Coronavirus: NSW residents will soon be able to travel to Tasmania
NSW residents will be able to travel to Tasmania without the need to quarantine from next Friday after Premier Peter Gutweit re-classified the state as “low-risk”.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
PEOPLE living in NSW will be free to travel to Tasmania from next week without having to quarantine, Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has announced.
Mt Gutwein said that as of November 6, NSW would be re-classified as a “low-risk” area allowing travel to flow freely between the two states.
However the premier has flagged that the announcement was subject to further health advice.
The southern state will now only remain closed to Victorians.
It comes as traces of COVID-19 have been found in a sewage treatment plant at Glenfield, in south western Sydney, prompting calls for local residents to get tested.
NSW Health is concerned there could be other active cases in the local community in people who have not been tested and who might incorrectly assume their symptoms are just a cold.
However, detection of the virus in sewage samples could be known cases of COVID-19 that have already been diagnosed in recent weeks.
Anyone in the south western Sydney area with even mild symptoms are advised to immediately self isolate and get tested
PORTUGAL CLUB ORDERED TO CLOSE
The Portugal Club in Sydney‘s Inner West has been ordered to shut for a week over breaches of COVID safety rules in a move the club’s secretary has described as “a bit harsh” but ”a wake up call”.
Club Secretary Eliana De Sousa told The Daily Telegraph that the club was ordered to close for a week after breaches including irregularities with sign-in sheets and having a COVID safety plan that was a week out of date.
She said it can be difficult to keep track of COVID safety requirements because the club is run by volunteers.
Regular patrons at the community club in Marrickville have also shown reticence in signing in with correct details, she said.
“Unfortunately when you‘re dealing with people with an average age in their mid-60s it can be hard to get them to understand (the rules),” she said.
“It‘s a bit harsh, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” she said, describing the closure as a ”wake up call”
TWO LOCAL COVID CASES
There have been 12 new cases of COVID-19 in NSW but only two of these locally transmitted.
Both of the community cases are household contacts linked to the Oran Park community cluster. The two people have been in isolation and there are now 25 cases linked to this cluster.
The remaining 10 other cases are all returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Testing numbers are slightly down with only 6,438 recorded in the last 24-hours compared to 7,447 in the same testing period a day earlier.
NSW Health is still urging anyone who has the mildest symptoms, like a runny nose, scratchy throat, fever or cough to get tested.
EX-QLD PREMIER BACKS NSW IN BORDER WARS
Long-serving former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has launched a salvo at Labor states over their handling of pandemic restrictions, saying Australia must “adopt the NSW model or we’re going to go broke”.
The remarks will send a jolt through the Queensland election campaign, where Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been under pressure over her border policy.
Mr Beattie, who said it “pained” him to make the remarks as a lifelong Labor member, took specific aim at border restrictions, declaring: “This can’t be on a state-by-state basis, we are a country after all and frankly you’re just killing the economy, killing jobs and the economic devastation will be with us for years”.
MORE NEWS
Hunt for mullet man: Cops reopen bank robbery case
Jetstar apologises after influencer delays plane for oyster snack
Maths exam just doesn’t add up for HSC students
He said he understood states had acted to “protect their citizenry” and have been “over cautious” but added “now we have to move on”.
“We’ve now got to become a nation and think about what’s good for Australia and what’s good for everyone,” Mr Beattie said.
“Elections come and go and governments come and go but the pain of this will remain unless we get it right.”
Mr Beattie’s remarks to The Daily Telegraph come less than a week from the Queensland election, with polls on a knife’s edge.
Urging for a “rethink”, Mr Beattie said objectively the NSW approach — using contact tracing to isolate small areas — had been the superior method for the economy.
“The NSW model is the one Australia has to adopt”, he said, conceding Queensland’s approach had been popular locally, but that it was now time for it to change on borders.
“I think initially the Queensland government approach was probably the right one, but I think we’ve moved past that now,’’ he said. “I’ve got no doubt there are a lot of people who support the Queensland government, but this has gone on for (too long).”
Noting that a vaccine is still some time away, Mr Beattie said “what worked in the past won’t work in the future” and states like Queensland needed to find a more economically viable way to live with the virus.
“Whoever wins in Queensland will have to pick up the pieces whether it's the current government or a new government … they will be dealing with the economics of COVID and it’s the same in Victoria,’’ he said.
“What may have given people security in the past and made them feel safe will not make them feel safe in the future. Queensland is a small business state and … unless you get them driving jobs and opportunities then you don’t have any economic growth.”
He said NSW had shown COVID could be managed “the hard way” — keeping the economy and borders open while using strict contact tracing to crack down on local cases. “Queensland has not had anywhere near the number of overseas people returning as NSW,” Mr Beattie said.
Originally published as Coronavirus: NSW residents will soon be able to travel to Tasmania
Nationwide overhaul needed to fix Australia’s housing crisis
The Business Council of Australia has come out swinging on the problems it says are driving up the cost of new homes across the country.
Artist used own paintings to push case to block gold mine
Indigenous artist Nyree Reynolds, whose application led to a gold mine in Blayney being put on ice, submitted her own paintings as evidence the mine should be blocked.