Festive fizzer: Qld’s Hard border to continue past Christmas

Deputy Premier Steven Miles has dropped a festive bombshell in confirming for the first time that Qld’s hard border and police checkpoints will stay in place until at least early next year.

Scrambling to explain the loss of Queensland’s anointed new chief health officer, Deputy Premier Steven Miles has revealed the hard state border will not ease until January at the earliest, not December as many believed following the release of a plan to reunite families for Christmas.

Speaking at a press conference today, Mr Miles said hard border checkpoints and barricades would not be removed until the state’s vaccination rates hit 90 per cent, which is not predicted until early next year.

It means southern holiday-makers and border community residents face more lengthy traffic jams over the peak holiday season.

Mr Miles said it was not known exactly when Queensland would reach 90 per cent vaccination levels.

“It’s very hard to predict the 90 per cent threshold,” he said.

“In some jurisdictions, we’ve seen a tapering off at 80 per cent so you can’t just use that.”

Deputy chief health officer Lynne McKinlay said Queensland Health was ‘looking at lots of modelling (and) when we’re confident of those dates we’ll share them’.

Asked if Queensland could reopen earlier than December 17, Dr McKinlay said she would have to look at the modelling.

A Queensland police officer moves a stop sign at a vehicle checkpoint on the Pacific Highway on the Queensland - New South Wales border. Photo: Patrick Hamilton / AFP

It comes as the government frantically seeks a replacement CHO following the shock resignation of Krispin Hajkowicz.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles called Dr Hajkowicz’s resignation announcement “unexpected” but said the government respected his privacy.

“It was a decision he made for personal reasons,” he said.

He said Dr Hajkowicz’s decision not to take up the CHO role wasn’t “ideal”.

“Obviously it’s not the outcome that we wanted, it’s not ideal. What we did at the same time was put a lot more infrastructure around the role,” he said.

This included implementing three deputy chief health officers and expanding the team around.

Dr Krispin Hajkowicz was due to take over as chief health officer from Dr Jeannette Young on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Mr Miles said it was “sad” that Dr Krispin Hajkowicz could no longer take up the role of chief health officer.

“But we are very well served by our deputy chief health officers as well as the very substantial team that we’ve built around them,” he said.

Mr Miles said Dr Young would still be sworn in as Governor on Monday.

“I think everyone agrees that Dr Young has done her service as the role of chief health officer.”

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The news comes as Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirmed no new cases of locally-acquired Covid-19 were recorded overnight.

There have been 8799 tests and 14,219 vaccinations administered over the past 24 hours.

This means 76.55 per cent of Queenslanders have received their first dose and 62.39 per cent are now fully vaccinated.

Queensland’s borders are set to be thrown open on December 17 - the date the state is expected to have reached the 80 per cent fully vaccinated mark.

Mr Miles said he has spoken to mayors across the state where vaccination rates are still below average.

“Where mayors can provide information to us about locations, times, hard to reach communities and ambassadors we’ll take all of that,” Mr Miles said.

Meanwhile, Mr Miles addressed the “onerous requirement” for businesses to only serve fully-vaccinated people moving forward.

He said the government was consulting businesses to find the best way to put “those kinds” of restrictions in place.

“No doubt there will be further announcements there,” he said.

The Courier-Mail revealed overnight that new figures show that in terms of vaccination rates, the 20-34 age bracket have more ground to make up than any other age bracket, with only 60 per cent fully vaccinated.

Mr Miles said the Wellcamp facility in Toowoomba would be involved in the “next phase” of being able to bring more people into Queensland from overseas.

The facility will have 500 beds before Christmas and another 500 next year for international students, agriculture workers and more.

Originally published as Festive fizzer: Qld’s Hard border to continue past Christmas