Rolling coverage: Victorians arrivals to isolate after fleeing Queensland ban
Gladys Berejiklian has taken a swipe at states that locked NSW out, saying they failed to extend the “courtesy” of consulting her.
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has taken a subtle swipe at her interstate counterparts, saying she would appreciate if they extended the “courtesy” of consulting her before slamming their borders shut.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Ms Berejiklian was asked her thoughts on Victoria’s decision to shut its doors to NSW over New Year’s in a move that saw thousands of people rush to the border.
Many Victorians have been left stranded north in NSW after missing the January 1 deadline to return home.
Queensland has also reintroduced its hard border measures in an effort to prevent the spread of Sydney’s virus clusters to the Sunshine State.
Ms Berejiklian said she understood the balancing act involved in making such decisions, but was frustrated at a lack of consultation and co-operation.
“I think NSW has made its position regarding borders very clear and I would simply say to other state leaders – firstly, please talk to us in NSW before you close the border because we can explain to you the situation that’s going on,” she said.
“Closing a border can affect literally, tens and hundreds of thousands of people, depending on where it is, and that’s a big call.
“And in NSW, our strategy is to try to minimise unnecessary stress on our citizens whilst obviously keeping the virus at bay.
“It‘s a difficult balance. But I just ask other state leaders to, please, talk to us before they close their border to New South Wales and give us a chance to demonstrate our capacity to get on top of the virus without adversely impacting our citizens.”
But Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said all discussions with his NSW health counterparts had been productive and “collaborative”.
He said NSW has been well informed of Victoria’s movements, including Health Minister Brad Hazzard, over its decision of a hard border closure late last year.
“I am in regular contact with my NSW colleagues,” he told reporters. “The conversations are all framed around acting on public health advice.
“It didn’t come as a shock to my NSW colleagues that after some, two weeks of community transmission across NSW, eking out from the north shore progressively for weeks, that Victoria was prepared to make the hard decisions to keep Victorians safe.“
Mr Foley said he had a phone hook-up with NSW health counterparts “every day” and when the recommendation to close the border were made he communicated that to his “interstate colleague”, Mr Hazzard.
“And then when the cabinet process finally signed off on that I alerted him (Mr Hazzard) again,” he said.
It comes after Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday he hoped to reopen the border as soon as next week.
“Hopefully settings can change fairly soon, maybe next week, maybe early next week,” he said.
“The border will be closed not one moment longer than it needs to be.”
FOURTH ‘ZERO DAY’ AFTER OUTBREAK
Victoria recorded four consecutive days without local transmission, with another bumper day of testing on Saturday.
But six returned travellers have been diagnosed with the disease. It comes as more than 23,400 tests were received on Saturday.
Victorian health minister Martin Foley praised Victorians who put their “heart and soul” into driving down case numbers from the Black Rock cluster to zero in seven days.
There are now 45 active cases in Victoria, including 17 in hotel quarantine, 27 associated with cluster and one other.
About 2500 close contacts are also isolating.
“We managed to achieve this important result… whilst keeping our community open,” Mr Foley said.
COVID-19 testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said masks had played a “critical” role in the state’s good numbers.
He added that the 60,000 Victorians who arrived home over the New Year period were instrumental in “bringing this outbreak to a halt.”
Mr Weimar said the original source of the outbreak in Victoria had not yet been identified.
“We’ve done a whole series of genomic sequencing… they’re all clearly associated and derived from the NSW Avalon cluster,” he said.
“[But] we have not yet found the index case.”
He also confirmed one of the six cases confirmed in hotel quarantine on Sunday was a flight crew member.
Mr Weimar added that there had been five cases of the UK variant confirmed in hotel quarantine in Victoria so far.
Meanwhile, Queensland recorded zero new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the second day of Brisbane’s three-day lockdown. It follows zero cases recorded on Saturday.
But New South Wales has recorded another three new cases of locally acquired coronavirus.
Of the new cases, two were close contacts of Berala cluster and the other was a close contact of someone from the northern beaches and is associated with the Avalon outbreak.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said health authorities were still “mopping up” the fallout from the two major clusters that emerged in Sydney’s southwest and northern beaches.
Avalon’s cluster, which kickstarted a lockdown on the northern beaches, has grown to 150 cases.
People living in the northern zone of the peninsula had been ordered not to leave their houses for three weeks, since December 19.
VICTORIANS TO ISOLATE AFTER FLEEING QUEENSLAND BAN
Passengers arriving at Melbourne Airport from Brisbane on Saturday were met by health officials in personal protective gear, with many tested on the spot for coronavirus.
Victorians were racing back to the state from Queensland on Saturday to avoid a potential border lockdown. Many had to contend with multiple flight cancellations and high ticket prices.
Health checks were conducted and passengers quizzed about their movements before their photos were taken for identification and record-keeping purposes.
However, while many passengers queued up to be tested in a screening room, others were given the option to go home and get tested.
Victorians who have returned from Queensland since January 2 have been ordered to get a coronavirus test and isolate until Monday, when a further announcement is expected.
Authorities have also warned Victorians not to travel to Queensland.
Travellers had been advised that only people with a valid exemption could travel to Victoria from a Queensland red zone as of midnight on Friday.
Jessica Hickey and partner Spencer Davis, who flew in from Brisbane, were relieved to make it back to Melbourne.
The couple – from Beaumaris and South Yarra – said they provided their details and movements to health officials.
“We just had to sign in,” Ms Hickey, 25, said. “Very simple. Basically just say we hadn’t been in a red zone at all and we were just using Brisbane as a thoroughfare.
“They said, ‘we recommend you get a test and isolate’ so we’re going to do that. Just recommended not mandatory.
“We were staying in Noosa Heads and we were unable to get flights from the Sunshine Coast so we came via Brisbane.”
Mr Davis added: “We just wanted to get out. We were actually meant to come home yesterday but we got bumped off our flight.”
Geelong couple Tom Fairbairn, 31, and Louise Everding, 41, decided to get tested after touching down, saying the health advice and checks before and after their flight were “all straight forward” after they holidayed on the Gold Coast for just under two weeks.
“Now we go home and isolate until we find out (our results),” Mr Fairbairn said.
On Saturday Queensland recorded no new COVID-19 cases amid an unprecedented three-day lockdown in Brisbane that could be extended further.
Queensland health officials have tracked 91 close contacts of the cleaner who contracted the mutant UK variant of the virus while working in hotel quarantine – with all testing negative.
They will be quarantined for 14 days and tested further, but Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said she was still concerned about casual contacts in the areas where the woman visited prior to testing positive.
Dr Young said it would take “a lot of cases” to prompt a longer lockdown, but insisted officials needed to “wait and see”.
COUPLE’S QUARANTINE SURPRISE
A Pakenham couple claim they were forced into hotel quarantine despite being told twice by the COVID Hotline they wouldn’t have to if they travelled from NSW to Queensland before Victoria shut its borders.
Olivia Allan and Thomas Lawlor travelled to Inverell in NSW on December 28 to mark New Year with family but changed their plans after Victoria announced it was closing its border to NSW.
Victorians returning from NSW before midnight on January 1 were advised to quarantine at home for 14 days and the Pakenham pair opted to cross the border into Queensland out of fear of being stuck in the state.
“On December 31, we called the hotline and explained that as we were two hours away from the Queensland border could we go there and they said ‘Yes, you just need to get out of NSW by midnight on January 1,” Mr Lawlor, 21, said.
“We … crossed over the border at 1pm, almost 12 hours before the deadline.”
The couple said when they phoned the hotline again, a few days before their flight back to Melbourne on January 7, they were given the same advice.
But when their plane touched down in Melbourne on Thursday, Mr Lawlor and Ms Allan were told they must go to hotel quarantine.
“We double-checked everything and then they flipped it on us, even though we did everything right and double-checked it,” Mr Lawlor said.
“We’ve just got to take this day by day,” she said.
— Additional reporting Brendan Rees and Sharon McGowan
Originally published as Rolling coverage: Victorians arrivals to isolate after fleeing Queensland ban
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