Queensland quarantiners asked to get tested, travel restrictions remain in place

Anyone who stayed in Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor since December 30 has been asked to contact Public Health and get tested, as travel restrictions remain in place for mainland hot spots. FOLLOW LIVE >>

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PREMIER Peter Gutwein’s message to travellers from the Greater Brisbane region is simple: “Don’t come”.

Travel restrictions remain in place for Greater Brisbane, with the area retaining it’s coronavirus high risk status.

“Don’t come to Tasmania ... that’s what a high-risk classification is,” Mr Gutwein said, “They had six cases of the more virulent United Kingdom strain.”

Queensland recorded no new cases of community transmission overnight, but two new cases were detected in hotel quarantine.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the latest genomic testing had uncovered six cases of the highly infectious UK variant of COVID-19 with a man and his daughter who travelled back from Lebanon catching the virus from another quarantine guest.

Anyone returned from overseas who stayed in Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor since December 30 has been asked to contact Public Health and arrange a COVID-19 test.

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Director of Public Health Dr Mark Veitch said because there are no clear contact tracing links between the cases in the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Tasamania must still be mindful there is small risk.

“There is still some risk of transmission in Brisbane over the coming week or so ... that’s why we’ve deffered a decision to relax restrictions on people coming from Brisbane to Tasmania,” he said.

Greater Sydney and Wollongong also retain their medium-risk status – meaning travellers can still come to Tasmania, but must isolate on arrival.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein during the COVID-19 update at Hobart. Picture Chris Kidd

“We currently have in place a medium-risk classification for the Sydney region and New South Wales authorities are continuing to work hard to get on top of the Northern Beaches cluster,” Mr Gutwein said.

Mr Gutwein said he expects it will take a number of weeks to get on top of the situation fully.

“There will be no change to the New South Wales risk settings,” he said.

“If you travel to Tasmania from the Greater Sydney area then you will go into quarantine in a suitable premises if you have one, if not you will quarantine in a government facility.”

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Originally published as Queensland quarantiners asked to get tested, travel restrictions remain in place