Coronavirus Australia: Palaszczuk issues new Sydney travel warning

Queensland poised slam border shut to Sydney, but will welcome Melbourne residents in time for school holidays.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks during a press conference at the official opening of the Alexandra Hills TAFE on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Queensland’s border with Sydney is poised to slam shut as the state prepares to welcome Melbourne residents in time for school holidays.

One new local Covid case was detected in Queensland on Tuesday, linked to an international flight crew member who tested positive at the weekend.

The man tested positive while in quarantine and authorities are not overly concerned about the risk of community spread.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the state’s border will reopen to Melbourne at 1am on Friday when the city’s hotspot status is revoked.

Ms Palaszczuk said authorities were keeping a close eye on community spread in NSW and warned Queenslanders again not to travel to Sydney.

Ten new NSW cases

Ten new cases have been added to the Bondi cluster, which has grown to 21 in total.

Travel from Sydney into Queensland is still allowed, except for people who have visited an exposure site or been to Waverly Council in the past 14 days.

Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said she would increase restrictions on Sydney if contact tracers were unable to handle the growing list of exposure sites.

“So as long as we feel as though we have some control there, and NSW and the ACT feel as they have control, we will don’t need to extend [restrictions].

“The issue is they keep finding more and more venues so we will just have to keep and eye on it.”

Vaccine concerns

The border update came as Ms Palaszczuk addressed concerns her state

may have to stop administering first doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of next month to ensure it has enough stock to administer second jabs.

Ms Palaszczuk says there was concern among state leaders about the supply of Pfizer vaccine.

“We are seeing our vaccination rates skyrocket here in Queensland and what we need from the federal government is constant supply,” she said.

“The last quarter of the year is when those large volumes will come on, up until then it is going to be a bit of a stretch.

“We have to make sure now that we have [a stockpile for] second doses, we were told initially that the Commonwealth had the second doses.

“The rules keep changing and we are trying to keep up.”