Qld COVID border policy: State ‘not trying to eliminate' COVID-19

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has explained why Queensland is not pursuing a COVID-19 elimination strategy, as the state government continues to face pressure from a federal level over its border policy.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says Queensland is not pursuing an elimination strategy as she insisted that her advice is always driven by health.

Dr Young on Friday said that if the Sunshine State was pursuing an elimination strategy, Queensland’s borders would be closed off to every state.

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“If we were pursuing an elimination process, I wouldn’t be recommending that all of these workers cross our border who definitely are at risk of bringing the virus in,” she said.

“But I believe, because of our great systems in place, we can manage any case in those selected areas very quickly.

“My advice is driven by health and that is the only issue that I consider.”

Dr Young said the medical advice was based on minimising the movement of people in and out of areas with a high number of coronavirus cases.

She said people who worked in the construction, agriculture and mining industries are still allowed to move across the border, saying that Queensland cannot be as strong on domestic borders as the country can be on international borders.

“Because we are one country and there is a lot of movement,” Dr Young said

“There are limits of course. There are requirements, so we need to manage those.

“But ultimately, in my view, if we were to have an outbreak in a construction site or a fruit picking site or in the resources sector, we could manage that by closing that area down and all of those industries know that.”

Dr Young said she did not want health care workers crossing the border because they would be coming from high risk areas to work in high risk situations – like an aged care facility or a hospital.

“Similarly, police, I don’t want police crossing the border one side or the other because they’re in high risk situations,” she said.

“I don’t want people crossing the border who can actually manage their lives where they are.”