Covid Gold Coast: Everything you need to know about border reopening
There were emotional scenes at the Gold Coast Airport this morning as the first of an estimated 50,000 interstate travellers arrived. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
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LATEST: There were emotional scenes at Gold Coast Airport on Monday morning after the first flight from Sydney landed following the lifting of border restrictions for vaccinated travellers.
Cheers greeted the first people through the arrival doors after Jetstar flight JQ400 landed at 6.14am.
Lesley Porter from Paradise Waters, who hadn’t seen son Gregg in two years, was among excited family members waiting to greet loved ones.
“I was up at 3am,” Ms Porter said. “I couldn’t go to sleep.”
Sophie Forkgen broke down in tears as she embraced friend Luke Donnelly when he walked through the arrival doors.
“He’s been away seven or eight months,” Ms Forkgen said.
“He moved to Sydney for work.
“I’m so excited.”
Mr Donnelly said he was delighted to be back and it had been “a long couple of months.”
Also reunited were Nikki Campbell, her daughter Danielle and one-year-old grandson Max.
Ms Campbell had travelled from Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast to greet her daughter, who flew to the Gold Coast because it was the first flight from Sydney into Queensland.
Danielle said she had moved her flight forward after it was announced the border would reopen four days earlier than originally expected.
“As soon as I heard it was open, I couldn’t wait,” she said.
The flight was the first of 25 expected at the airport today.
Queensland Airports CEO Chris Mills said that by Friday, more than 60 flights a day would arrive, delivering a much-needed shot in the arm to the Gold Coast tourist industry.
“Last week it was six flights (a day),” Mr Mills said.
“Today it’s 25 and by the end of the week it will be more than 60.
“That’s almost back to pre-Covid levels. It’s quickly ramping up.”
Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said it was “a day that our tourism operators have been waiting for.”
“We know that we have lost $3.6 billion dollars out of our economy and a billion of that has been in the last quarter alone,” Ms O’Callaghan said.
“But today things are looking fantastic. It is great to hear that our airport could be at pre-Covid capacity by Friday.
“Our occupancy level over Christmas and New Year’s is looking at more than 75 per cent already and picking up several percentage points every single day that we are opening.
“Our tourism attractions and our operators are reporting solid bookings all the way through to January.
“So things are looking great.”
A large number of Queensland Police officers mingled with passengers as they waited to collect their luggage from baggage carousels.
One family from Wollongong, who had flown in for a five-day holiday, was found to have arrived without entry passes.
The family told the Bulletin they were unaware they needed to obtain passes to enter Queensland.
After establishing that the family were fully vaccinated and had returned negative Covid tests before flying, officers allowed the family to apply for passes online using their mobile phones.
The family was allowed to leave the terminal to begin their holiday once they had done so successfully.
BORDER FINALLY OPENS
THE Queensland border has finally opened, with tens of thousands of people pouring into the state through the Gold Coast, bringing with them a $300m economic injection.
The biggest police operation since the 2018 Commonwealth Games began at 1am Monday morning when the first of up to 50,000 people crossed the NSW border for the first time since July.
The border was closed three times for a total of 435 days since the pandemic began - from March to November 2020, again in December-January 2020-21 and since July 23 this year when NSW and Victoria were locked out.
While police officers have their hands full, tourism leaders are celebrating, describing it as the real beginning of the Gold Coast’s recovery from Covid-19, nearly two years after the pandemic began.
The excitement of the reopening is being tempered by warnings from health officials that the state’s hospital system will experience “strain” in coming weeks as the number of daily Covid cases increases significantly.
TOURISM SECTOR CELEBRATIONS
Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said the reopening was a “significant milestone” for the industry, which has lost more than $5bn since January 2020.
Ms O’Callaghan said the influx of visitors for the Christmas and New Year period would deliver a $280m boom to the city’s economy.
“This is the Christmas gift our industry deserve as it provides relief and certainty after more than 18 months of disruption,” she said.
“Today’s reopening means we can start our journey to recovery in earnest.”
Gold Coast Airport welcomed its first flight from Sydney at 6.25am, with major airlines ramping up their services each day this week.
Queensland Airports CEO Chris Mills said the terminal would be dramatically different from the ghost town it was at the height of lockdowns.
“We are expecting to return to pre-Covid capacity levels by Friday,” he said.
“Reopening day has been eagerly anticipated by many people, especially those in the tourism and aviation industries,” he said.
“We are expecting plenty of emotional reunions, as friends and families reunite.”
Jetstar CEO Gareth Evans said the Gold Coast routes would be among the busiest in the country this week.
“The Gold Coast is one of Jetstar’s biggest domestic markets and home to one of our largest bases and today’s border opening is a really exciting day for our customers and our crew.
“By next week, Jetstar will be operating 35 return flights into the Gold Coast daily, which is nearly 10 times the number of flights we were operating before borders opened.
More than 4400 businesses are linked to the tourism industry, which employs more than 35,000 people across the Gold Coast.
PREPARE FOR MORE CASES
No new cases of community transmission were recorded in Queensland on Sunday, with a single case - a man in his 30s who travelled from Nigeria - detected in hotel quarantine.
Testing is ongoing to determine if he has the highly contagious Omicron variant.
There are currently 46 active cases across the state.
Deputy chief health officer Dr James Smith said the health system would “strain” from an increase of new Covid cases into the hundreds.
“I can’t see it being next week but it will be imminent,” he said.
“This is why we’ve been saying there is no freedom day, like it is the case that we absolutely need to prepare for cases.”
“We will have cases, we are not the point at which we are living with Covid.
“We are six months away before we can comfortably say we are living with Covid.”
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the Gold Coast would benefit from the reopening
“With the border arraignment changing, we know more tourists will come to Queensland which will be good for tourist operators, particularly in the Christmas and New Year period,” he said.
LONG DELAYS AT BORDER
More than 200 police will be working at the border on Covid duties in coming days.
Coast police boss, acting Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman, said warned motorists to expect ‘big delays’.
The checkpoints are expected to remain in place until Queensland’s vaccination level hits 90 per cent but police are planning to use random intercepts rather than stopping every vehicle in a bid to reduce lengthy Christmas holiday traffic snarls.
Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said the checkpoints would be busy.
“We could see up to 60,000 vehicles (crossing into Queensland) per day,” he said.
KEY QUESTIONS:
What about people coming from declared hot spots?
If you have been in a hotspot in the past two weeks, you may travel to Queensland if you are fully vaccinated, have a negative Covid-19 PCR test within 72 hours prior to arrival and get tested on day five.
Travellers can arrive by road or air, and do not need to quarantine.
Queensland residents or anyone relocating to the state who does not meet the criteria must arrive by air and complete two weeks of hotel quarantine.
What about Queensland residents travelling to and returning from the NSW border zone?
You do not need to provide a negative test result to cross the border.
Queensland residents entering the NSW border zone must only stay there for as long as needed to do that activity.
The restriction does not apply if you are fully vaccinated and travelling between Queensland and the non-restricted NSW border zone.
What if you are coming from anywhere else in Australia that is not a hotspot?
There are no restrictions for these travellers, including no quarantine requirement.
What if you are coming from overseas?
If you are on an international flight, you must arrive at Brisbane International Airport and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or an immediate family member travelling with one.
You must also be fully vaccinated, have a negative result within 72 hours before departure and undertake two weeks of home quarantine within two hours drive of the airport.
Anyone else living there must also complete quarantine and have at least one dose of a vaccine.
What if you are arriving from overseas via another state or territory?
You must be fully vaccinated and undertake the Queensland period of quarantine under the direction of another jurisdiction at home or in a government-nominated facility.
If you arrive into Australia via a hotspot, you must complete two weeks of hotel quarantine in Queensland.
However, if you only transit through an airport in a hotspot, you are considered to have arrived directly into Queensland.
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