Queenslanders urged to consider risks of travelling to NSW

After another 200,000 NSW residents were banned from the state, CHO Jeannette Young has warned Queenslanders to carefully consider trips south of the border or risk being quarantined at your own expense if the situation gets “out of control”.

QUEENSLANDERS are being urged to “consider the risks” of travelling to NSW as outbreaks could rapidly spread and “get out of control”.

It comes as another 200,000 NSW residents will be banned from entering Queensland, with the state government widening its list of coronavirus hotspots amid continuing community transmission interstate.

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Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young warned further hot spots could be declared at short notice if community transmission continued to increase.

“I urge travellers to consider the risks of travelling to NSW at this time as outbreaks can rapidly spread and get out of control, as we’ve seen in NSW, Victoria and other countries,” she said.

“We’re giving people as much time as possible to come home to the safety of Queensland but that notice may not always be possible.

“If an area where you are staying or visiting is suddenly declared a hotspot while you are there, once you return to Queensland, you will have to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel at your own expense.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday announced the NSW city of Fairfield would be added to Queensland’s COVID hotspot list after receiving advice from Dr Young.

It will mean anyone trying to enter the Sunshine State who has been to Fairfield the 14 days prior will be turned around at the border, unless they have an exemption.

Queensland residents returning from the city – which has a population of about 200,000 people – will be allowed back into the state, but will be directed into hotel quarantine at their own expense for 14 days.

Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young. Picture: News Corp/Attila Csaszar

Ms Palaszczuk said the directive would come into effect from 1am Monday and followed an outbreak of 46 cases.

Earlier in the day, when asked about speculation the border could be shut again to NSW, the Premier said: “We’re monitoring that every day.”

“So every single day after NSW reports on their cases, if we have to declare further hot spots, we will declare further hot spots,” she said.

Travellers from the NSW cities of Campbelltown and Liverpool – both adjacent to Fairfield – as well as Victoria, remain banned from entering Queensland.

Queensland recorded no new cases of coronavirus yesterday, with just three active cases across the state.

Originally published as Queenslanders urged to consider risks of travelling to NSW