Coronavirus Qld: COVID case update as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk faces growing border backlash
Annastacia Palaszczuk has fought back tears as she doubled down on her tough border stance in the wake of a growing number of heart-breaking first-person accounts, the situation is “not nice” but “I have been absolutely consistent on this”. It comes as the state recorded two new cases overnight.
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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has fought back her emotions defending the state’s tough border and hotel quarantine restrictions, saying: “I’m human just like everyone else”, in the wake of a number of heart-breaking first-person accounts of their impact.
Ms Palaszczuk was close to tears as she was asked to comment on accusations of being cold-hearted over Queensland denying people from declared interstate coronavirus hotspots, and those flying in from overseas, the opportunity to attend funerals without first going into 14 days’ quarantine.
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“These issues hurt me deeply. They hurt me deeply because during this pandemic I’ve lost loved ones as well so I know exactly what people are going through,” the Premier told journalists on Friday.
“I feel these issues very personally, just like everyone else does. It is absolutely heartbreaking and gut wrenching.”
Her emotional news conference comes a day after Canberra resident Sarah Caisip farewelled her father with a private viewing of his body after she was denied permission to attend his funeral with family and friends. The 26-year-old was clad in personal protective equipment during her last goodbye with her Dad.
“Anyone who would have seen those images is heartbroken,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “Who wouldn’t be touched by these cases?”
But she added: “We’re in a global pandemic at the moment. It is tough on everybody. My job is to keep five million Queenslanders safe.”
Ms Palaszczuk also stressed decisions on who was granted exemptions to measures designed to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, were up to Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young under the Public Health Act.
“Let me make it very clear. I don’t make those decisions,” Ms Palasszczuk said.
“You’ve got to take the clinical advice here. We’re dealing with a health pandemic.”
Dr Young has defended her tough stance on funerals, describing them as extremely high risk for the transmission of the pandemic virus.
“I do not want to see in Queensland any risk of people attending a funeral, getting exposed, getting COVID-19 and then going back to a vulnerable setting,” she said. “One of the exemptions for leaving an aged care facility is to attend a funeral.
“Australia’s numbers who’ve died of COVID-19 have reached over 700 Australians. A lot of them have happened in aged care facilities.
“That’s something that I am absolutely adamant, I will do everything I possibly can to stop happening in Queensland.
“Every single death is a really difficult death for someone, including me.”
Queensland recorded two new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, taking the total number of known infections in the state to 1145.
Both were already in quarantine when they tested positive. One is the seventh member of a household to have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The other is indirectly linked to the Ipswich Hospital outbreak.
Ms Palaszczuk on Friday morning defended her government’s border exemption rules as she faced a grilling from the Opposition at an estimates hearings.
Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland had 40 people who worked specifically on border exemption applications, and there were 8 staff made up of nurses, doctors and other medical professionals as part of a specialist unit.
“In relation to exemptions, I think there seems to be ... people don’t think that these exemptions are happening,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“In fact, there were 31,000 freight exemptions that have been granted.
“I understand 170,000 border zone exemptions – so they’re the people that are working ... going crossing over between those border communities.
“And then I also understand there have been 229 exemptions for specialist workers, health care and compassionate grounds.”
The Premier’s emotional response came after Queensland’s border exemption regime came under national attention yesterday, when a Canberra resident was unable to attend her Queensland father’s funeral.
The 26-year-old woman was ultimately allowed to have a private viewing of her father’s body – isolated from her mother and 11-year-old sister.
Sarah Caisip, 26, of Canberra, was eventually permitted to farewell her father in person after she found herself at the centre of a standoff over Queensland’s strict border rules, but she had to do it alone, clad in extensive PPE, and without her loved ones at a private viewing of his body.
Originally published as Coronavirus Qld: COVID case update as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk faces growing border backlash
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