Qld borders shut to Greater Sydney region amid coronavirus outbreak

Queensland has declared all of Greater Sydney a hotspot and will close its borders to all residents from Saturday over virus fears.

Queensland will close its borders to all Sydney residents from 1am on Saturday.

“Queensland will close its borders to all of Greater Sydney. From 1am Saturday, more hot spots will be declared and no one from Sydney will be allowed into Queensland,” she tweeted today.

“Queensland residents returning will have to isolate in a hotel for 14 days at their own expense,” she added in a second tweet.

The move blindsided the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who said she wasn’t given prior notice before today.

Greater Sydney is made up of some 34 local government areas, Ms Palaszczuk said on Wednesday.

The new border ban will mean 31 new local government areas (LGAs) will be declared hot spots — the Queensland government had previously declared three LGAs in Greater Sydney as hot spots.

“There has been more outbreaks in other parts of Greater Sydney and that will now become another declared hot spot … effective from 1am Saturday morning and we have done that so we can give notice to Queenslanders,” Ms Palaszczuk said today.

“We must protect Queenslanders,” she added. “Your safety comes first and we are in extraordinary times at the moment.

“We have to do everything we can so that would take effect 1am Saturday morning.”

“When the Chief Health Officer advises the Queensland government and myself to close the border we will close the border,” she said.

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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will declare all of greater Sydney a hotspot from 1am on Saturday.

Ms Palaszczuk also urged Queenslanders not to travel to Sydney or Victoria.

She said they’ll also be continuing to “monitor very carefully” for other potential hot spots around the country.

NSW BLINDSIDED BY THE DECISION

The move has blindsided the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who confirmed she received “no prior notice” of the Queensland Government’s plan to close to border to all residents of greater Sydney.

“It would have been nice if she told me,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters today.

Ms Berejiklian said the border closures were a “matter for the Queensland government and a matter for her (Ms Palaszczuk).

“I note that the cases they have had up there, announced today are all from Victoria. And the case from South Australia is from Victoria.

“That’s a decision for her and in the end, it hurts the smaller states when they don’t interact with NSW. It hurts us less if you talk about economy and that’s a decision for her.

“The economic consequences in Queensland or South Australia will hurt much more than it hurts NSW, we are in the strongest position in the nation, which we want to maintain obviously.”

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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will declare Greater Sydney a coronavirus hotspot from Saturday.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was not consulted about Queensland closing its borders to Greater Sydney. Picture: Jeremy Piper / NCA NewsWire

SCOTT MORRISON CALLS BORDER DECISION ‘WISE’

Prime Minister Scott Morrison today said he supports the Queensland government’s move, calling it “wise”.

”I think it is wise,” Mr Morrison said. “I think it’s important to put borders aside when it comes to those things.

“If you are not in an outbreak zone, you do not want people moving to where you are and otherwise you end up in a situation that we have ended up in broader Metropolitan Victoria. I think that is very sensible that we limit people out of outbreak (zones) and I support that strongly.

“That is the basis of the position I have been advancing to the states and territories from the very outset.”

The Queensland government already has a number of border restrictions in place regarding declared “hot spot” areas in NSW and Victoria.

From July 10 the Queensland government has required any Queensland resident who visited a designated hot spot returning to the state, to quarantine for 14 days when they return home.

People who aren’t residents of Queensland who are from a designated hot spot are already banned from crossing the border.

Queensland’s list of hot spots in NSW includes Campbelltown LGA in western Sydney, Fairfield City in western Sydney and Liverpool LGA in south west Sydney.

There are also more than 70 declared hot spots in Victoria where residents are banned from entering Queensland.

TWO TEENS BRING VIRUS TO QUEENSLAND

Queensland has reported two new cases of COVID-19 after two women travelled together from Victoria in circumstances, the state’s chief medical officer has called “very disappointing”.

“Both of the new cases are 19-year-old women, one from Logan and one from Acacia Ridge,” Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said today.

Both of the women are now being treated at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

“They both travelled together recently, including returning to Brisbane from Melbourne on July 21 via Sydney,” Mr Miles said.

The two women travelled on flights VA 863 and VA 977, Mr Miles said. Contact tracers from Queensland Health are working on identifying their close contacts and a list of locations the two women have visited will be released later today.

One of the women works at Parklands Christian College — a private school in Logan that was closed earlier today. Mr Miles said families and staff were “notified of the potential exposure last night”.

“I understand an event that was planned last night was cancelled and now that the school is closed as a deep clean is going under way. Close contacts at the school are being identified,” he said.

The last time Queensland reported a case of coronavirus was on July 24, when the state reported two new cases. It takes the total number of cases in the state to 1078.

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Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said the two women had ‘gone about their business’ and a lot of contact tracing would need to be done.

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“These young women have gone about their business within the communities that they live in and so there will be a large amount of contact tracing to be done, largely within it the Logan and Springfield areas, including shopping malls, restaurants and a church,” Mr Miles said.

“Our contact tracers are doing that work right now. There is also a number of close contacts in both of their households. That will now be ordered to quarantine.”

He also urged anyone who lives in the Logan and Springfield Lakes regions to seek out testing.

Mr Miles said Queensland Health had learned from previous situations how to respond to these situations.

“The whole of our system will be mobilised,” he said.

‘VERY DISAPPOINTING’

Queensland’s Health chief warned a lot of people could be put out by the response to the two new cases.

“It is very disappointing this has occurred,” Dr Jeanette Young, Queensland’s Chief Medical Officer said. “We need to act really, really fast.”

“These two young women have been out in the community for eight days while unwell.”

“Two young women returned from Melbourne, which we know is an absolute hot spot with a lot of cases, return from Melbourne on the 21 July via Sydney and now tested positive.

“As a result of that, a lot of people are going to be inconvenienced.”

“And I do apologise to those people for what is now going to have to do occur.

“But we know that if we act really fast now we can stop this spreading further and cause even more inconvenience to a lot of people.

“So there are going to be shopping centres, a school, restaurants or close now for at least 48 hours while we arrange a deep clean of those facilities and contact people who attended.”

She also said all aged care facilities in the Metro South region would be closed to visitors, and have enhanced screening of staff members to ensure they’re not working at multiple centres.