High hopes for Qld to open to Victoria by Christmas as health chief warns virus will ‘never be gone’

Victorians wanting to visit Queensland for Christmas may be able to do so without quarantining despite a warning the virus will ‘never be gone’.

A terminally ill woman knocked back from a Queensland border restriction three times has taken aim at the state’s double standards as pressure mounts on health officials to open the border before Christmas.

According to The Courier Mail, Bree McQuilty, who lives in country Victoria, has applied three times to quarantine at her family’s home in Brisbane, providing doctors letters explaining how her weakened immune system would be at a greater risk in a hotel. Her appeal has been refused.

Meanwhile, a host of Melbourne Storm players and officials were granted an exemption from hotel quarantine after their win in the Sydney NRL grand final, instead staying in a beachfront apartment in what has been slammed as double standards.

Ms McQuilty’s family wants her home for Christmas, with fears it could be her last one.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said Queensland could open to Victoria quarantine free by Christmas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jono Searle

Speaking on ABC radio on Tuesday morning, the state’s chief health officer said she was continuing to monitor the situation in Victoria and NSW and would make a decision on whether the border would open for Christmas at the end of the month.

She offered her strongest hint yet that Victorians could visit their Queensland relatives by December.

“It’s really exciting where we see how Melbourne is, it’s just brilliant. I’m sure they are starting to feel a good chance they’ve eliminated the virus, which is exciting,” Dr Jeannette Young said.

“Hopefully, we will be able to open the borders to Victoria and not have to quarantine.

“We need to see a little bit longer in Melbourne … them having removed so many restrictions, we have to see if there is any undetected virus circulating and give it a little bit longer.”

Dr Young said despite promising news about the Pfizer vaccine and 55 days without community transmission of COVID-19, Queenslanders needed to learn to live with the virus.

“We’ll never be able to say that this virus has gone … because of the large number of cases across the world,” Dr Young said.

“It’s here to stay. We have to learn to live with it, and we will.”

Queensland recorded just one new case on Tuesday, a young woman in hotel quarantine who recently returned from Turkey.