Red zone: Sydneysiders forced to get COVID test to enter QLD

Travellers from parts of NSW and greater Sydney will be forced to get a coronavirus test and quarantine until they get results under tough new border measures for entering Queensland.

Travellers from parts of NSW and greater Sydney will be forced to get a coronavirus test on entry to Qld and self-quarantine until they get results under tough new border measures for entering Queensland announced today.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath this afternoon announced all travellers from the northern beaches - the centre of a rapidly growing COVID cluster - would have to apply for an ‘exceptional circumstances’ exemption to enter Queensland from 1am tomorrow and, if approved, would have to go into hotel quarantine at their own expense.

Any other travellers from greater Sydney and the Central Coast will have to get a COVID test and self-quarantine until they get a negative result while all travellers from anywhere in NSW will need a border pass from 1am tomorrow.

They can apply for a border pass from 8pm tonight.

Dr Jeannette Young and Yvette D'Ath announce the tough new measures.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the reason for adding the Central Coast to a COVID test requirement was because there is a direct ferry link with the northern beaches and it is a common means of transport between the two areas.

“That will ensure we don’t have further spread from Sydney,” Dr Young said.

“We strongly recommend Queenslanders intending travel to Sydney reconsider their plans.”

It comes as Victoria looks to close its borders to all of Sydney with Health Minister Martin Foley saying there is ‘significant risk’ COVID has ‘seeded’ across greater Sydney and if so, ‘we will have no choice but to declare all of Sydney a red zone’.

A total of 3,640 people from NSW have been checked on arrival into Queensland by police with 174 given directions to get tested and go into self quarantine.

One person has gone into hotel quarantine.

Close contacts of the case on the Sunshine Coast are still being traced but many have already been contacted.

Those who came in from 1am yesterday were directed to self-quarantine.

NSW Health has advised Queensland that 11 close contacts of the northern beaches cluster have been tracked to Queensland. All of those people are now in quarantine.

Coronavirus has been detected in sewage on the Gold Coast, Townsville, northern Cairns and Cleveland.

“Every day matters when it comes to COVID and contract tracing and the spread of COVID,” said Ms D’ath.

Police will be doing random audits and checks with people going through the borders.

“We are relying on people to be honest about where they have been, whether they have arrived by car or arrived by plane,” Ms D’ath said.

Earlier, Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace said Queensland Health would be examining the latest NSW cases, which today soared by 23, to determine if more suburbs need to be locked out of the sunshine state.

She said Queensland had recorded no new cases on Saturday, despite a woman in her 50s from the Northern Beaches region returning a positive test in Queensland on Friday.

Education Minister Grace says more areas of NSW may be declared hot spots. Pic: Tara Croser.

“I know that Sydney is very concerned and they’re a bit anxious about it and that makes Queensland concerned and anxious,” Ms Grace told reporters.

“I think at the moment the hot spots obviously will remain the hot spots, and closed as they were yesterday.

“Whether that needs to be extended, I think depends on where those new cases have come from.”

Queensland on Thursday declared the Northern Beaches region a hot spot, forcing any Queenslander who has been there in the past week to isolate at home.

Anyone who arrives in Queensland after 1am on Sunday from the Northern Beaches has to hotel quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.

Ms Grace said Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young would be consulting her NSW counterpart Dr Kerry Chant on the latest cases.

Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young will examine the location of the latest NSW cases to determine if more suburbs should be declared hot spots. Pic: Tara Croser.

NSW Health recorded another 23 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, with 21 of those linked to the Avalon cluster, while two remain under investigation.

There are now 38 confirmed cases linked to the northern beaches cluster.

“Dr Jeannette Young is all over it with other chief health officers around the country,” Ms Grace said.

“Dr Young will be in consultation with the chief health officer in New South Wales and they’ll have a look at those cases and analyse what it means, and we’ll announce those as soon as we possibly can.”

Queensland health authorities on Friday added several local venues to a contact tracing alert after a woman infected with coronavirus travelled into the state from Sydney.

Queensland Health is expected to consult NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant over new NSW cases. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

The patient in her 50s linked to the cluster on Sydney’s northern beaches, was infected when she flew into Brisbane on Virgin flight VA925, landing about 9.30am on Wednesday.

Queensland Health issued alerts about places the woman had visited across Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

The woman travelled to the Sunshine Coast from Brisbane and stayed overnight at a hotel, before returning to Brisbane on December 17 to get a test at Prince Charles Hospital after a friend notified her of the outbreak in Sydney.

The woman was considered to be infectious in Queensland for two days, but is now self-isolating back on Sydney’s northern beaches after driving home following her test which came back positive on Thursday night.

Originally published as Red zone: Sydneysiders forced to get COVID test to enter QLD