NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard hammers Queensland Premier

The NSW Health Minister has hammered Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk again as she digs her heels in on her tough border stance.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard hammered the Queensland Premier again over her continuing tough stance on borders.

Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Wednesday NSW had 48 hours to find the source a new COVID-19 cases or risk delaying the border with Queensland reopening. With that deadline approaching fast Friday morning, Mr Hazzard said the demand was “silly” and “cruel”.

“It’s not evidence based. It’s simply I think off the back of her election. She wants to look tough for Queensland residents,” Mr Hazzard said.

“If she keeps this up and we don’t have a vaccine, we don’t have a treatment this could go on for years. This is a silly game you should be playing. She’s playing with people’s lives.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said NSW needs to keep community transmission to a minimum in order for the border to reopen. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

Ms Palaszczuk has said she would consider opening her state’s southern border on November 1 if NSW kept community transmission to a minimum for 28 days.

A 12-day streak with no community transmission ended on Wednesday, and since then the virus cases have been stacking up in NSW. The state announced 12 new virus cases on Thursday, one more than Victoria’s 11 new infections.

Asked if he was confident health workers would be able to trace everyone involved in the new clusters, Mr Hazzard said: “Our tracers do an incredible job. If it can be done it will be done. We have to wait and see.”