Border task force calls for tougher breach penalties
Members of a cross border task force say community anger over a recent Covid breach is palpable and action should be taken against businesses not playing by the rules.
Lismore
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The bipartisan Cross Border Taskforce is calling for tougher penalties for people who breach public health orders as well as action against businesses who do not abide by their Covid Safe plans.
NSW members of the group also joined their North Coast colleagues in calling on the NSW Government to adopt a staged approach to opening up travel to the regions once the state reached its 70 per cent and 80 per cent double vaccination targets.
Task force spokeswoman and Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry said it would take the North Coast three to four weeks to catch up to vaccination rates already achieved in other parts of the state.
“This is not because of vaccine hesitancy – recent surveys by local health groups have shown the willingness of our population to get vaccinated is comparable to Australia as a whole,” Ms Cherry said.
“We’re behind because our vaccines were diverted to Sydney some months ago to assist in their time of need.
“To put it frankly, we took one for the team, now it’s our turn,” she said.
It came after the Tweed and Byron local government areas were thrown into lockdown after a Covid-positive crew member from I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here visited a number of venues in Byron Bay and Kingscliff.
“It beggars belief that a person from a Covid hotspot was granted an exemption as an essential worker to travel to Ballina and then proceed to be out and about in the community, sending both Tweed and Byron local government areas into lockdown and causing a tightening of the Queensland land border restrictions,” Ms Cherry said.
“The anger in our respective communities on both sides of the border is palpable.
“A number of businesses have told us that this is the final straw – they won’t open their doors again once this lockdown lifts and it’s heartbreaking.
“We have written to the NSW Premier and Deputy Premier asking that any existing exemptions for production company ITV in our area be revoked until such time as our region’s vaccination rates hit the state milestones.
She said the company needed to be held accountable if it was found there were breaches to its Covid Safe plan.
“With the Queensland border tightened again we are now back to square one and measures must be taken to ensure this unacceptable situation does not happen again,” she said.
“This totally avoidable incident by one individual has once again thrown our communities on both sides of the border into chaos.”
Bookings available for vaccines
The health district is urging people to get vaccinated as more appointments become available across the area.
Although more than 70 per cent of adults living in Northern NSW have now had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, health officials are keen to see the number grow.
• The Tweed Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic has immediate appointments available for Pfizer and Astra Zeneca in the coming days.
• The Grafton Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic has appointments available for Pfizer in the coming weeks.
• Appointments are available at Tweed, Lismore, and Grafton Covid-19 vaccination clinics for AstraZeneca.
Northern NSW Local Health District Covid-19 Vaccination Program co-ordinator Matt Long said it was great to see the community responding well to the increased vaccination opportunities.
“We want to keep up the strong vaccination momentum that we have seen recently, with first dose vaccination rates rising by 14 to 20 per cent points across our footprint since late August,” he said.
Those aged 12 years and above are now eligible for the Covid-19 vaccination.
Vaccines can be booked via the Covid-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder.
Premier gives update
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the government will look at case numbers to determine travel restrictions after the state reaches the much vaunted 70 per cent double dose mark.
It came as chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant revealed at a press conference that Covid fragments had been found in sewage at South Lismore.
There have been no new cases of Covid-19 reported in Northern NSW local health district, with one case in Coffs Harbour reported, who is a close contact of an earlier case.
The person has been isolating since Saturday.
Regional travel ban
Responding to questions at Friday’s press conference, Premier Berejiklian said the government was always looking at what it would do in relation to regional travel when Sydney reached its 70 per cent double dose milestone.
“We’ll look at what the case numbers are doing at that stage,” she said.
“The most recent update I had told me that there were only seven local government areas that haven’t achieved 70 per cent first dose and we’re working very hard between now and these next few weeks to get all communities up to at least that level.”
Ms Berejiklian said a briefing a week ago told her that there were 26 areas that hadn’t achieved 70 per cent and in a week it had dropped to a handful.
The premier did not mention the five North Coast MPs who banded together to express concerns about an influx of Sydney travellers, instead speaking more generally.
“While we appreciate all those concerns expressed by people we will make the cautious decisions based on the health advice, and we will make those decisions as we approach that 70 per cent,” she said.
“As the Doherty report said, depending on the number of cases will determine how mobile we can be outside out own areas … and we’ll take the approach as we have on most things in a cautious and considered way.”
Barilaro responds to North Coast MPs
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said that the government’s priority had always been protecting the regions from Covid-19 and the road map to living with Covid was no exception.
“Our number one focus is lifting vaccination rates the length and breadth of regional NSW before we reach the 70 per cent double dose target state wide,” he said.
“If we need to amend the settings to protect vulnerable regional communities and those communities with lower vaccination rates, we will assess closer to the time, in accordance with NSW Health advice.”
Sewage detection
South Lismore was named at Friday’s press conference as having a positive Covid trace in its sewage detection.
Dr Kerry Chant said they wished to alert members of the community to the detection.
The test performed on September 22 is the second positive in a row for the South Lismore plant, which previously had a positive reading on September 15.
Other active positive results have been recorded at East Lismore, Wardell and Grafton.
Queensland border
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles spoke about the border on Friday morning, referring to it as the state’s “only remaining restriction”.
He did not give any certainty as to when border restrictions would ease but said the decision would be based on the number of cases and vaccination rates in Queensland and New South Wales.
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