Qld borders: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces when state will open

Queensland has nominated its border reopening date, with fully vaccinated travellers just days away from being allowed into the Sunshine State.

Queensland will throw its borders open to interstate visitors on December 13 with the state on the cusp of the 80 per cent double-dose vaccine target.

Monday’s widely-expected announcement from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk comes more than four months after the Sunshine State walled itself off to Covid hot spots including NSW and Victoria.

The borders will be open to all travellers from Monday, December 13, at 1am, with those entering from hot spots required to be double vaccinated and have proof of a negative test within 72-hours of arrival.

New rules from December 13:

• Fully vaccinated travellers can arrive from interstate hot spots by road or air without quarantine, but must test negative to Covid-19 in the previous 72 hours
  
• All arrivals, regardless of vaccination status, must get another Covid-19 test on day 5 after arriving in Queensland
  
• International arrivals must be fully vaccinated, return a negative test within 72 hours of departure, and must do 14 days of home or hotel quarantine
  
• Fully vaccinated border zone residents with a border pass will be able to move freely across the border, no test required
  
• People arriving in Queensland from hot spots who are not fully vaccinated must arrive by air and hotel quarantine for 14 days
• Border zone residents who are not fully vaccinated will only be able to cross the border for limited reasons, as is the case now.

Queensland, which has kept Covid numbers low via its hard line border stance, had provisionally flagged December 10 as the date it would pass the 80 per cent and allow people from interstate hot spots to cross over.

But that target is now set to be reached early, with Ms Palaszczuk on Monday afternoon announcing the borders would drop for fully-vaccinated arrivals in a weeks’ time.

Travellers have been locked out of Queensland for months. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Barring an unpredictable ‘border bubble’ arrangement with neighbouring NSW regions, arrivals to Queensland have for months been required to obtain a border pass and quarantine in hotels at their own expense.

The strategy has been successful in combating the Delta surge, but it has also been criticised for being too harsh, too rigid, and unfairly favouring celebrities and sportspeople.

Last month, the state began welcoming fully vaccinated arrivals by air so long as they were willing to undergo home quarantine for two weeks.

Originally published as Qld borders: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces when state will open