CHO’s travel warning: Sydney cluster may “rapidly escalate”
Queensland families are ‘devastated’ that Christmas travel plans have been obliterated with the declaration of a Sydney hotspot and fears over further restrictions after today’s new cases.
QLD News
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HEALTH authorities don’t know whether Queensland will slam shut its border to greater Sydney ahead of Christmas, but travel plans are already unraveling and flights becoming prohibitively expensive after a hotspot was declared.
It comes after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed Queensland has three new cases of COVID-19 - two in hotel quarantine and the third a woman from Sydney’s Northern Beaches who visited Queensland.
SEE THE LIST OF PLACES SHE VISITED BELOW
For the Littlewood family in Cairns, the restrictions will be enforced just 12 hours before their loved ones were due to travel for Christmas.
“My sister, Stacey, her husband and daughter were going to fly up and visit, they live in Freshwater which is classed as a hotspot,” Kelly Littlewood told The Courier-Mail.
“They have a flight booked on Saturday at 1pm, and the changes come into effect only 12 hours before they are due to travel – so we are devastated.”
“It would have been our first Christmas together with our niece Maggie.”
Ms Littlewood said she is lucky she booked a spontaneous flight to Sydney when the borders reopened on December 1 to spend a few days with Stacey, who is heavily pregnant.
“It was 14 months since I last saw her before I booked the spontaneous trip for two days, I’m so glad I did that, because otherwise we would have missed that window altogether and it would have been many more months,” she said.
“We have no idea how long this will extend on for now.”
Louise and Emily Hunter, from Willoughby, bought more expensive tickets today with less than 24 hours notice in the hopes they would be able to get into Queensland for Christmas.
“I haven’t seen my family in over a year and Emily is over two years,” Louise said.
“We were all supposed to drive up together but Emily’s dad stayed back and hopes to be able to drive up soon.”
Shannon O’Brien, from Queensland, said her family had stressed she would not make it home for Christmas.
“I had booked my ticket ages ago but people beside me said they had paid over $1000 just to get home,” she said.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she was watching very closely what was happening in the Sydney region.
“My understanding is ... there has been a case in Cronulla but they’re linked to these other cases,” she said.
“There’s also been a case in Garden Island but again it’s linked.
“So while they’re linked and there isn’t community spread in those localities they won’t be declared hotspots.”
But Dr Young said if there was to be community transmission in other areas, health authorities would consider declaring them hotspots.
She said everyone should reconsider travelling to Sydney.
“Think it through carefully because if things rapidly escalate through the rest of Sydney other areas might be declared hotspots,” she said.
“We just have to continue to be really cautious and we have to be sensible as we go through the next few weeks.”
“This is a rapidly evolving situation in the Northern Beaches that could spread throughout the rest of Sydney.”
Dr Young said the Sydney woman who tested positive after visiting Queensland flew on a Virgin flight VA 925 on Wednesday, December 16, arriving in Brisbane Airport at 9.30am
Dr Young said authorities were contacting anyone on that plane who was high risk and anyone who was on that flight should immediately get tested if they develop any symptoms at all.
She said the two main areas of concern were the Virgin flight at the Eight Mile Plains hotel as there was more potential for exposure.
“The specific risk - two rows in front, behind and beside - we will be in contact with those people,” Dr Young said of the Virgin flight.
Anyone who attended The Glen Hotel after 11.30am on Wednesday, December 16 and develops symptoms should also get tested.
“We are contact tracing people who did attend lunch - they’re who we’re most concerned about,” she said.
Dr Young said the woman went to Prince Charles Hospital to get tested and minimised her contact with other people while in Queensland and during her trip back to Sydney.
She said the woman who had tested positive had been an “excellent individual”, minimising her interaction with people after being tested.
“She then travelled (back to Sydney) via a hire car so she did change cars but she minimised her interaction with people and we are contact tracing anyone she had interaction with, and then she drove straight down to Sydney,” she said.
“She did stop along the way but she managed her interactions very well.”
Dr Young said the advice remained that anyone with any symptoms that could be related to COVID-19 needed to get tested immediately.
She also said anyone who had been in the Northern Beaches from December 11 needed to be honest, remain where they are and go into immediate quarantine.
She also urged people to remain vigilant over the Christmas period.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said today quarantining will be done from home.
“Anyone who comes into Queensland from the hotspot area today will be required to quarantine for 14 days from the time they left the hotspot,” he said.
“We are meeting 100 per cent of all flights coming into Queensland and there are some 52 flights coming out of Sydney today coming into Queensland right across the state.
“We will be interviewing and checking with the passengers on those planes to make sure we can identify those people coming out of that hotspot area.”
He said 12 people on a flight in north Queensland this morning arrived from the hotspot.
People arriving today will be issued with a self-quarantine notice.
“As of 1am we return to our border declaration pass system, meaning if you are coming out of a hotspot you must have a border declaration pass to enter Queensland and you will be required to mandatory self paid hotel quarantine for 14 days,” he said.
“Our road borders remain open, we will be doing random checks.
“We will be very strongly looking at our compliance regime - licensed premises and cafes - really need to understand the Queensland Government and police will be out and about making sure people are doing the right thing.”
He said people in the past 24 hours had been issued with fines and now was “not the time for complacency”.
It comes as the Sydney clusters grow to 28 after 10 new cases overnight.
The outbreak has triggered stay-at-home orders for three days for 250,000 people in the Northern Beaches Local Government area.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the source of the outbreak came from an overseas strain. How locals became infected remains unknown.
Several health alerts have also been sent out for venues.
Queensland authorities will be releasing details of the flight on which the confirmed case had travelled.
FULL LIST OF WHERE THE POSITIVE CASE VISITED:
Wednesday December 16, Brisbane Domestic Airport 9am, 9.54am
Wednesday December 16, Hertz Car Rental, 1980 Sandgate Road, Boondall, 10am - 10.30am
Wednesday December 16, The Glen Hotel, Eight Mile Plains, 11am- 2.30pm
Wednesday December 16, Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Birtinya, 5pm - 8.30pm
Wednesday December 16, Hungry Jacks, Kawana Waters, 8pm - 10pm
Wednesday December 16 - Thursday December 17, Kawana Waters Nightcap Hotel, Buddina, 9pm - 7am.
Thursday December 17, The Prince Charles Hospital fever clinic, Chermside, 10.19am - 10.26am.
Wednesday December 16, Virgin flight VA92 from Sydney to Brisbane
Originally published as CHO’s travel warning: Sydney cluster may “rapidly escalate”
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