Berejiklian says Queensland ‘spiteful’ in opening border to Victoria before Sydney
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she is ‘mortified’ by the ‘cruel and spiteful’ notion of Queensland opening its borders to Victoria before Greater Sydney.
NSW
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is “mortified” by the “cruel” notion of Queensland opening its borders to Victoria before residents from Greater Sydney.
Her comments come after Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young described Melbourne’s streak of no new coronavirus cases as exciting and that she was hopeful Victorian travel restrictions would be eased before Christmas.
Premier Berejiklian said she was mortified by the notion that the Queensland border would be open to Victoria before those that live in Sydney as there is “no health or scientific basis to it”.
“I think it is unjustified and I think it is spiteful. NSW has demonstrated you can manage the pandemic by keeping the community safe but also by keeping people in jobs and keeping people mobile and relatively free in a COVID-safe way,” she said on Today.
“We are doing the heavy lifting (in NSW) and we do it because we are Australians. I think it is appropriate that people recognise that and were not so cruel in letting politics get in the way of public health.”
Victoria reported 11 consecutive days of no coronavirus cases on Tuesday, and in the fortnight leading up to November 7 there was only one mystery case.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has previously said she wanted to see 28 consecutive days without a mystery case before she would consider opening the border to NSW.
She also demanded that mystery cases be found and linked to existing clusters within 48-hours.
The Greater Sydney area last week reported a mystery case in the Southern Highlands without a source of infection. There have been four close contacts linked to this.
Ms Berejiklian added, there was no health evidence for the 48-hour deadline.
“I do not know what that medical advice is based on. I have never ever heard about having to track each source of infection within two days – I don’t know where that has come from,” she said on Today.
“I think we’ve got the best contact tracers in Australia, if not the world, here in NSW. Sometimes it can take hours to find a source, sometimes days. Sometimes it takes weeks to get all the genomic sequencing to match. That is what the health facts are.”
It comes as NSW recorded no locally acquired coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
There were four cases in hotel quarantine and more than 20,500 tests undertaken statewide.
NSW Health is still urging people in Southern Highlands, Sydney’s southwest and Rouse Hill to be tested if they display symptoms.