Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk opens Qld borders to Greater Sydney within days

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has shocked her NSW counterpart, announcing Qld’s borders will reopen to Greater Sydney within days.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced Queensland’s borders will reopen to all of New South Wales from February 1, surprising her NSW counterpart.

It comes as Queensland records no new locally acquired cases of COVID in the past 24 hours. One case was detected in hotel quarantine.

People from Greater Sydney were locked out of Queensland on December 22 when the area was declared a hotspot following the virus outbreak on the city’s northern beaches.

“The border checkpoints will be coming down, that’s also good news for our police as well, because they’ve done a mighty job down there as our emergency services have as well,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Ms Palaszczuk said Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young was “delighted” when she made the decision overnight.

“If anyone’s down there in NSW or Victoria and you’re thinking about having a holiday, come up to Cairns.”

“Everyone is here, ready and willing to welcome you with open arms and a friendly smile.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the hotspot program had worked “very well.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says Queensland’s borders to Greater Sydney will reopen from February 1. Picture: Matt Taylor

The development came as a surprise to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian who had to be told of the reopening on live radio minutes later.

“What do you know that I don’t?,” Ms Berejiklian asked 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

She said she had not spoken to her Queensland counterpart about the change.

“It is good news,” she said.

“The difficulty is that different states have different approaches. I obviously have the view that you only close borders as a last option. We have lots of other tools and other things we can do to manage rather than shut-out internal borders.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she was surprised by Queensland’s decision to reopen the borders to Greater Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

Ms Palaszczuk said the tourism industry was hurting, especially those industries that relied heavily on international travellers.

“I want Queenslanders to get out and about and explore Queensland,” the Premier said.

“We know how important that NSW market is as well.”

The Premier said the Queensland Government remained concerned about the new UK strain of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Dr Young said once the Commonwealth Government had secured supplies of the COVID vaccine, health officials would be able to “roll them out immediately”.

“Our first six hubs will be in our major cities that are at the highest risk of having any cases,” she said.

“Then as we get those newer vaccines that can be distributed more easily because they don’t need to be managed in those very, very low temperatures … we will be able to spread that vaccine out throughout the state.”

She said the time frame for rolling out the vaccine would depend on when the Commonwealth secures the vaccine supplies.

“We know from the Commonwealth that they expect to get the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine towards the end of February,” Dr Young said.

“So we hope to be able to start vaccination then.

“And as we get those other doses of additional vaccines, as soon as we get them, we’ve got the systems in place to rapidly get them out.”

Dr Young said hotel quarantine workers and health staff would be among the first to get the vaccine in Queensland, followed by the vulnerable – such as those in aged care.

“Then gradually all adults will be offered that vaccine,” she said.

“At the end, when all adults have been vaccinated, depending what the evidence says about children and when the trials have been done, we will then look at children.”

There are currently 12 active COVID cases in Queensland.

Originally published as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk opens Qld borders to Greater Sydney within days