NT reopens borders to Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich in Queensland and Eurobodalla Shire and Blue Mountains in NSW

TRAVELLERS from parts of Queensland and New South Wales can cross the Northern Territory’s borders freely once more, after the Chief Health Officer revoked their hotspot status on Friday afternoon

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THE postponed Darwin Supercars event originally scheduled for this weekend can’t be saved despite the revocation of the hot spot status on parts of Queensland and New South Wales.

People who have travelled through or are from the Queensland council areas of Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan, and the NSW council areas of Eurobodalla Shire and the Blue Mountains can now come into the NT without going into mandatory quarantine, after Chief Health Officer Dr Hugh Heggie revoked their hot spot status on Friday afternoon.

Those in forced mandatory quarantine, including the roughly 40 Supercars drivers, crew and staff, were also set free into the wilds of the NT.

But the Darwin SuperSprint and Supercars event opener that had to be pushed back due to crew members being forced into quarantine cannot be salvaged as it is logistically impossible.

Dr Heggie said he made the decision after reviewing the coronavirus case data in Queensland and NSW and consultation with his Health Department team.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Dr Heggie have repeatedly said hot spot declarations would be made and revoked at a moment’s notice.

The Queensland hot spots were declared Friday of last week upon fears two infected women who had allegedly lied on their travel forms and had been in the community for eight days may have sparked a new wave in that state.

Queensland, despite a major testing blitz, has recorded no new cases since August 2, with the one case recorded on Wednesday found to be a false positive.

In the last four weeks up to August 6, NSW Health data shows there have been two cases of coronavirus in the Eurobodalla Shire and three in the Blue Mountains, all of which are from known sources.

NSW recorded 11 new cases in the 24 hours to Friday morning, with Victoria reporting 11 deaths and 450 new cases in the same time frame.

NT has three active cases.

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