Gold Coast GP Dr Christine Mirakian stuck in Victoria is furious children locked out of Qld while footy players allowed in

A prominent Gold Coast doctor stuck in Victoria after trying to bring her children home has grave fears for teenagers caught up in Qld’s hotel quarantine pause. HER WARNING >>>

A GOLD Coast doctor trapped in Victoria after trying to get her boarding school daughter home for the holidays is “furious” 100 NRL players and their families entered Queensland during the two-week hotel quarantine pause.

“It’s ludicrous that Queenslanders are being locked out of their state when she’s (Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) allowing sporting teams to come from Sydney,” said Dr Christine Mirakian, GP and forensic physician.

“She’s not making decisions in the best interest of many families.

“We need sensible and fair decisions by our leaders, I want families to be reunited.”

She flew to regional Victoria on August 20, knowing the border was closed and she’d have to hotel quarantine upon her return, but within 24 hours of arriving regional Victoria joined the rest of the state in lockdown.

Dr Christine Mirakian, a Gold Coast GP and forensic physician.

A few days later Queensland paused hotel quarantine because the system was being “overwhelmed” and the state was being “loved to death”.

The government will not start considering border passes until September 8, with Dr Mirakian told it may take up to 15 days for passes to be approved.

“I plan to allow other children to accompany us into hotel quarantine so that their parents didn’t have to as minors are not allowed to hotel quarantine alone,” she said.

“Something is terribly wrong. Multiple children aged 14 to 16 are stranded in regional Victoria yet sports people are allowed in from Sydney.”

On Tuesday morning the Premier announced there’d be a “trial” of home quarantine for boarding school children.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks during Question Time at Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

But Dr Mirakian said this was too late.

“While we definitely welcome the home quarantine part, the kids need to be home this Friday so that they can be out of quarantine for the holidays,” she said.

“There is no point coming home and being locked up in a bedroom for two weeks then going back.

“People may not realise that home quarantine is not like a lockdown, there is no going out to the supermarket, no exercising, no seeing anyone. It is like home jail.

“We should be allowed home now.”

A spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk told the Bulletin the NRL families had not entered its hotel quarantine program.

“The NRL has been coming into Qld for months under a bubble arrangement and Covid-safe plan agreed to long ago,” he said.

“They are not in hotel quarantine. No one is denied a place in hotel quarantine because of bubble arrangements with sporting teams.”

It is understood hotels outside the program were booked out by organisations to be used for the families’ mandatory 14-day quarantine. They are believed to be staying in Brisbane.

Dr Mirakian said the government’s heavy-handed approach was causing serious mental health issues that are likely to linger for years to come.

“I know so many teenagers that would much rather be locked at boarding school than spend two weeks in hotel quarantine, they say they just couldn’t be locked up for two weeks without any fresh air or exercise,” she said.

“This situation is not good for children’s long term mental health.”

A Queensland Health spokesperson said it knew border restrictions were inconvenient and caused disruption to people’s lives and livelihoods.

“We must balance these factors against the serious health risk to more than five million Queenslanders,” he said.

“The aim of the strict border is to limit the number of people entering Queensland who could potentially import Covid-19 into our state, which we know could be catastrophic leading to more lock downs and even tighter control measures.”

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