Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says Qld will only reopen borders after 28 days of zero community transmission
As community transmisson of COVID-19 is again recorded in NSW, Queensland’s Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington says she would rely on a briefing from the state’s chief health officer to make a decision on borders. A claim that she hasn’t been invited to meet with Jeannette Young has been rejected by Labor.
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New South Wales’ impressive streak of no locally acquired cases of coronavirus has been broken.
Up to 8pm on Tuesday, the state recorded three new cases, all from returned travellers in hotel quarantine – but after that recording period three additional, locally acquired cases were uncovered.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state was still sticking to its plan to only open the border to NSW if it recorded 28 days of zero community transmission, meaning no unlinked cases.
“I haven’t heard that (about that NSW case), I’d have to get that confirmed,” she said earlier.
“(28 days) is the advice from Dr Young, and it’s not just the advice from Dr Young, all of the health professionals got together their proposal…was that 28 days clear of community transmission should have been a national approach, and unfortunately that didn’t go to national Cabinet.”
Ms Palaszczuk says health authorities would watch NSW “very carefully” over the next fortnight as the state moves into school holidays and the chance of community transmission increases.
“In relation to community transmission, we’ve always said we want to watch very carefully what happens to NSW over the next fortnight as they go into the school holidays. That’s when people are moving around, as well, and they’re not just staying around their homes and their neighbourhoods.
“We’ll be watching that very, very carefully.”
Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles, who is in Townsville announcing a $25 million package of health projects for the local hospital today, said it was “too early to say” if Queensland would need to reset the 28 day clock on reopening the border with NSW.
“There’s certainly enough reason to be concerned but we will monitor very closely whether NSW can link those cases to existing clusters,” he said.
Mr Miles also defended Queensland’s tough standard of requiring no unlinked cases for 28 days before the border with NSW is reopened, saying the standard was set by the Chief Health Officer’s committee and the rules had kept Queensland safe.
Queensland opposition leader Deb Frecklington claims she hasn’t heard back from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk after requesting COVID-19 briefings from the Chief Health Officer during caretaker period.
But government sources have revealed the LNP Leader’s office was contacted this morning about having a briefing with Dr Jeannette Young today.
But Ms Frecklington’s office has insisted the LNP leader had said she had not had a response from the Premier, rather than others in the government, following a letter she had sent Ms Palaszczuk.
That revelation comes after Ms Frecklington was asked whether she would change Queensland’s border policy in light of the three new cases in NSW.
“I would get a briefing from the Chief Health Officer and take her advice,” Ms Frecklington said.
“I haven’t been afforded that briefing from the Premier and it appears the Premier hasn’t even responded to my request.”
Ms Frecklington repeated the borders shouldn’t be “set and forget”.
“I have always said as well that the borders shouldn’t be closed one day longer than they have to be,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Premier said she was also disappointed with the reported handling of a brain tumour patient who had returned to Queensland from NSW and was ordered to travel in an Uber or taxi with the windows open.
“That’s very distressing, and can I say I’m not happy about the way Queensland Health has handled that. I spoke with the Health Minister and the Deputy Premier this morning, he’s going to be speaking with the paramedics, and ambulance service about ensuring that transfers can happen.
“Everyone needs to understand that this is an awful situation that people are going through, and I’d ask the Health Minister to address it.”
Mr Miles said Queensland Health should have done better in the case.
“I have spoken with the Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette young... and received a briefing from her about the support that can be provided,” he said
“I’m assured that the person concerned and their support person are able to be in quarantine together - they’re not in the regular hotel quarantine - that they have access to that Medi hotel that we set up to provide additional health supports.
“And if the Medi hotel is insufficient to provide those health supports then we will make available to them a room in one of our hospitals where they can have full access to entire range of services at one of our tertiary hospitals.”
Mr Miles said it was “not acceptable” for the patient to be travelling in an Uber or taxi to medical appointments.
He said he had tasked Queensland Health to make an ambulance available for the patient.
The new locally acquired NSW cases are not believed to be linked to each other, and are spread across the Parramatta, Camden and Wollondilly – two women and a man, all aged in their 50s.
Contact tracers are racing to identify close contacts of the new cases.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said testing numbers across the state were too low, especially considering the new cases.
“Our suspicions the virus is always lurking in the community are founded – and we wouldn’t have said it if we didn’t mean it,” she said.
The news comes as NSW Health issues an urgent warning to nearly half a million residents living in south western Sydney and the Hawkesbury areas to come forward for testing.
Recent samples of sewage in the areas uncovered traces of the virus, despite no recent cases in the area.
This break in the state’s 12-day streak with no community transmission resets the clock for the border between NSW and Queensland to open, which QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said would take 28 days of no locally acquired cases.
Ms Berejiklian delivered a stinging barb to her northern counterpart, suggesting there is no way the state would ever be able to go four weeks with no local cases.
NSW has reported no recent cases of locally transmitted #COVID19 through to 8pm last night, for the 12th consecutive day.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) October 7, 2020
However, since 8pm, three reports of cases have been received – two in South Western Sydney and one in Western Sydney. These are under urgent investigation. pic.twitter.com/NZMkGMD2Bo
“We have to assume during the course of the pandemic that from time to time, we’re always going to have this,” she said.
“We’re always going to have cases pop up because we’re in a pandemic, but also in an economy that is open … where we don’t have borders but for Victoria.
“So I say to the Queensland Government, I appreciate you’ll probably come out today and say the 28 days is ticking again from the start, but I will put to you – until the end of the pandemic, it’s highly unlikely, highly improbable that NSW will ever get to 28 days of no community transmission, because that is not how a pandemic works.
“Queensland and WA have the luxury of closing their borders, so they have a higher chance of having zero community transmitted cases.”
Originally published as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says Qld will only reopen borders after 28 days of zero community transmission
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