Queensland throws open borders to parts of NSW
Queensland and South Australia will finally throw open its borders to NSW, with SA set to officially open up from midnight tomorrow.
Queensland will throw open its borders to five additional New South Wales Shires from next weekend.
The 41 postcodes that make up Byron, Ballina, Lismore, Richmond Valley, and Glenn Innes shires will be welcome in Queensland from 1am on October 1, with Queensland residents allowed to “travel freely” to those regions.
It comes as South Australia has announced it will officially open its borders to NSW as of midnight tomorrow.
Premier Steven Marshall said the decision was subject to no community transmission being recorded up until midnight tonight in NSW.
“They (the committee) were furnished with all necessary information from NSW to make the decision,” he said.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said residents would be able to apply for a border pass to travel around Queensland, and Queenslanders “will also be able to travel as well”.
“I think this is a great effort to consider how we can make our border zones more effective, but also looking at these areas have a lot in common with Queensland … So we believe that this is the right measure to take,” she said.
There were no new cases confirmed in Queensland on Tuesday morning, in what Deputy Premier Steven Miles said was a “stark contrast” to what was happening in the rest of the world.
Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said she hoped it would make life easier for northern NSW residents.
“There have been no cases in those border areas for quite some time … there have been no cases north of Sydney for quite a while,” Dr Young said.
“So it is safe to open up. The people that live on that border have a lot more to do with Queensland than they do with NSW.
“We know the difficulties (border closures) have caused those communities.”
There are about 152,000 people who live in those shires. Queenslanders and northern NSW residents coming into Queensland will still need to apply for a border declaration pass to confirm they have not visited a hotspot in the previous 14 days.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said he could not be happier, and hoped border reopenings soon snowballed to include all of NSW.
“We hope it's an indication that borders will now gradually open more generally and more broadly,” Mr Gschwind said.
“It's a credit to our health professionals around Australia because we are miles ahead of the rest of the world and allow us to shape a recovery including tourism without delay.”
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate told the Courier Mail the partial border opening was a “huge step forward” for the local tourism industry.
“It’s great timing with the NSW school holidays about to start and on the back of the border reopening to the ACT and the commencement of direct flights from Canberra to Coolangatta on Friday,” he said.
“I think the Gold Coast can become the gateway for northern NSW residents to visit other parts of Queensland,” he said.
Flights from Sydney to Adelaide, which are operating daily, are still available at relatively bargain prices. Budget airline Jetstar are flinging fares in October from as little as $90 one way. Qantas have fares starting from $214 one way while Virgin Australia have seats including 23kg of carry-on from $159 one way.
Virgin Australia told news.com.au the relaxed border restrictions has allowed it to rush out more interstate flights.
The airline will resume three return Canberra-Adelaide a week from October 12 and add more Adelaide-Sydney return flights, which will become daily from October 2 and double daily from November 2.
By the end of October Virgin Australia also plans to resume daily return flights between Brisbane and Canberra — which currently operate three times week — and increase Canberra-Gold Coast flights from two return services a week to five.
It will continue its direct services between Adelaide-Brisbane and Adelaide-Gold Coast.
“We’re pleased that Queensland is reopening to ACT residents and that South Australia is reopening to both ACT and NSW residents, which is great news for tourism operators and the local economies,” Virgin Australia general manager of network and revenue management Russell Shaw said.
“We look forward to the safe reopening of further borders to help the tourism and aviation industries to recover and provide more opportunities for Australians to travel locally.”
It comes as a decision on lifting other restrictions in southeast Queensland could be made as soon as Thursday, as the state nears two weeks without any COVID-19 cases in the community.
Queenslanders are eagerly awaiting a decision on whether restrictions on gatherings and visiting aged care homes and hospitals will be lifted, potentially as soon as this weekend.
That will be dependent on no new COVID-19 cases recorded outside of quarantine in the next two days, according to Mr Miles.
“Thursday would be 14 days after the last case thought to be infectious in the community,” Mr Miles said.
“So that’s an appropriate review point.”
As of Monday, it had been 11 days since a COVID-19 case was thought to be infectious while in the community.
It comes as Queensland Health released two new contact tracing alerts which relate to a recently identified case.
Anyone who was at Royal Pines Resort (Tees clubhouse restaurant and golf shop) at Benowa on August 24 between 7.45am and 3pm, and Gailes Golf Club at Wacol on August 27 between 9am and 3.30pm is being told to monitor their health and get tested if they develop any symptoms.
Since August 22, gatherings in southeast Queensland have been restricted to 10, and to 30 everywhere else in the state.
On that same Saturday, chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young put restrictions on visiting aged care homes and hospitals after a cluster emerged in Brisbane’s west.
Previously, Dr Young has set a two week requirement for restrictions to be reviewed, and possibly eased.
It comes as Queensland recorded one new case on Monday, a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. Both Dr Young and Mr Miles are calling for more people to get tested, after only 2708 samples were undertaken in that testing period.
“We want to find the first case in the cluster, not the 40th,” Dr Young has previously said.
At least 49 people have been linked to a cluster, which first broke out at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, and spread to the Queensland Corrective Services Academy and Ipswich Hospital.
Dr Young last week said genomic testing had all-but linked the latest Queensland cluster to a much smaller one caused by two Logan women who returned from Melbourne in July.
“That’s the most likely scenario and even more likely after doing more testing out there and not finding any other chains of transmission,” Dr Young said.
“We didn’t find the first case in this cluster, we found a subsequent case and that’s why it’s taken longer to get on top of it,” Dr Young said.
Since September 10, the only confirmed cases have been returned travellers or close contacts of known cases. All have been in quarantine.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said on Monday morning Dr Young would consider aged care restrictions this week.
If a decision is made to lift restrictions, visitors would be allowed to return to aged care, hospital and disability accommodation services.
Thursday could also spell the end of gatherings being restricted to 10 people. Last week, gathering restrictions in the Gold Coast and Darling Downs Hospital and Health Services were relaxed from 10 to 30 people, in line with the rest of the state.
Stricter restrictions are still in place for Brisbane, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Logan, Moreton Bay, Redland, Scenic Rim and Somerset local government regions.
It comes as Queensland reopens its borders to the ACT as of Friday, September 25.
Incredible video of wild Jetstar job
An incredible video shows the complex 36-hour process of changing an aircraft engine in just one minute – but it is the final testing stage that is the most exciting.
Eerie post before Aussie found dead in Bali
An Australian woman took to social media just hours before she was found dead in a Bali hotel bathtub.
1000 tourists ‘violently’ ill visiting island
Close to 1000 tourists have fallen ill with a “horror” illness after visiting this idyllic island on what was supposed to be a dream holiday.