Coronavirus NSW: Qld’s contact tracer border rule not endorsed by experts
A strict deadline imposed by Queensland giving NSW contact tracers just 48 hours to find the source of a locally acquired COVID case or risk the border clock restarting was not accepted by the national team of health experts leading the nation’s pandemic response.
NSW Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Queensland government’s claims that a strict two-day deadline for NSW to find the source of the state’s mystery COVID cases was imposed by health experts has been shot down amid an escalation in the war of words over the border battle.
NSW contract tracers were told if they failed to meet the 48-hour deadline Queensland would “consider” pushing back the border opening date.
But Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s claims on Friday that the deadline was “agreed to by the AHPPC (Australian Health Protection Principal Committee)” — the team of health experts leading the nation’s pandemic response — is false.
Sources familiar with AHPPC discussions told The Saturday Telegraph the 48-hour deadline was proposed by one person in a meeting but the idea was not adopted.
Daily Telegraph gives you a chance to have a say on life in NSW
Anything agreed to by the AHPPC goes to the federal government and national cabinet, but it is understood the deadline was never put to those decision-making bodies.
The time frame was proposed in a meeting as part of a way to classify whether an area had COVID community transmission, a source familiar with the talks said.
Under the September proposal, a “COVID controlled zone” would be one where “the person who is the source of infection is identified quickly, such as within 48 hours of recognition of the case”, meeting notes recounted to the Telegraph say.
Ms Palaszczuk on Friday said the AHPPC “agreed … on a set of terms and conditions, and it never proceeded to national cabinet”.
“There was a proposal that was supposed to go to national cabinet, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, the Prime Minister decided not to bring that forward,” she said.
Premiers never saw the proposal because it was not agreed to by the AHPPC, the Telegraph was told.
Ms Palaszczuk did not answer specific questions about when the deadline was agreed to by the AHPPC. The Queensland Health department also failed to answer the questions.
What you get as a subscriber to The Daily Telegraph
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the 48-hour deadline to link new cases “was completely new”.
“I mean, that’s just something they plucked out of, I don’t know where. I’ve never heard that advice before,” she said on Friday.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said Ms Palaszczuk “wanted to look tough for Queensland residents” and was “playing with people’s lives”.
“I think the decision by Premier Palaszczuk is purely political,” he said. “I think it’s cruel.
“It’s cruel to the families that need to be able to cross over for just so many different reasons.”