Coronavirus Australia: Hotel quarantine for travellers returning to Sydney from Victoria, Qld border slams shut to NSW, ACT
Everyone arriving in Sydney from Victoria faces hotel quarantine, as Qld slams shut its border with NSW.
Every returning traveller arriving in Sydney from Victoria will have to go into mandatory hotel quarantine, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced, as Queensland prepares to shut the border to NSW on Saturday.
From Friday morning travellers from Victoria to NSW will be subjected to the same quarantine arrangements as international arrivals.
“Given the escalating situation in Victoria, and also the fact we are on high alert, and while the number of cases in NSW is pleasingly stable, we continue to be at high risk,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Health officials confirmed 12 new cases of COVID-19 in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
The government said returning domestic travellers would have to pay for hotel quarantine at their own expense.
“All returning NSW residents, unless they live within the NSW border regions, will only be allowed to return to NSW through Sydney airport,” a statement said.
There would be no change to existing arrangements for border communities, the premier confirmed.
Qld border slams shut to NSW, ACT
The move comes as Annastacia Palaszczuk announces Queensland will close its borders to NSW and the ACT from 1am on Saturday August 8.
The Queensland Premier said all visitors will be denied entry except for rare exemptions.
Ms Palaszczuk said border passes would be granted to residents from the Tweed.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is declaring NSW and ACT a hotspot, from Saturday at 1am.
“This is the right thing to do,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“But your health comes first … we need to protect our economy.”
Ms Palaszczuk said now was not the time to travel to NSW or Victoria.
“We’ve seen that Victoria is not getting better and we’re not going to wait for NSW to get worse, we need to act, and we’ve taken the decisive decision to act,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Today is the day I say to Queenslanders, we’ve listened to you … today is the day we say we’re putting Queenslanders first.”
Queensland has recorded one new case of COVID-19 overnight.
Ms Palaszczuk said the decision had been driven also by “continuous breaches” of the border by Queenslanders lying to get back into the state.
BREAKING: Queensland borders will close to New South Wales & the Australian Capital Territory from 1am Saturday, August 8.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 4, 2020
All visitors will be denied entry except for rare exemptions & returning Queenslanders will have to pay for 14 days mandatory hotel quarantine.#COVID19au pic.twitter.com/Yc7BxKJ3GW
Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said the number of active cases was 11 in Queensland, with five in hospital. The origin of the new case today is not yet known.
“We went 63 days with no community transmission … but that all changed seven days ago, a lot can change in a week,” Mr Miles said.
Seven days ago, three women from Logan allegedly lied about being in Melbourne to get back into Queensland; two of the three have tested positive to COVID-19.
Mr Miles said in that week, nine cases had been recorded in Queensland.
“We cannot afford to have that second wave here in Queensland; there is also intelligence to suggest some people are flying to the ACT to avoid our hotspot lockdown,” Mr Miles said.
He said the state’s economy was just getting back on its feet and the government could not risk the recovery.
“There will be some critics, like the LNP, it might be Clive Palmer, but we are doing the right thing to keep Queenslanders safe,” he said.
“Border restrictions have proven to be one of the most effective tools (against COVID-19).”
The road border between Queensland and NSW will be closed to all but a very limited number of exemptions, including those living in border communities and freight.
Border pass system strengthened
The border pass system will be strengthened, and people will have to provide photo identification. The road border between QLD-NSW will be closed to all but a few, with Queenslanders having to enter via NT or air.
Mr Miles said the border closure would be reviewed at the end of the month.
The border closure inconvenience is “nothing” compared to the Stage 4 lockdown in Victoria, he said.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said an extra two historical cases had been added to Queensland’s total.
The single new case is a 68-year-old woman who lives in Ipswich. Dr Young said health authorities were working with her to trace her infection source.
Dr Young asked people to maintain social distancing because “we don’t know where we might get a new case in Queensland”.
Charges for border pass liars
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said two people in their 60s had been charged for lying on their border passes to get back into Queensland.
He said police are also investigating a Queenslander who allegedly drove into the ACT from Sydney to fly to Cairns to avoid the border closure, because he was “frustrated” with the restrictions and wanted to go to back to work.
“There are clearly a small percentage who are doing the wrong thing, and are deliberately deceiving the system … for their own purposes,” Mr Gollschewski said.
“While those numbers are small, the risk is too great.”
Returning Queenslanders must quarantine
Importantly, after 1am August 8, any Queenslander who wants to return to Queensland will not be able to drive back in, apart from via NT. They must fly, and then enter 14 days’ mandatory hotel quarantine — which they will have to pay for.
Mr Gollschewski said the tougher restrictions would allow police to do more auditing of those allowed through the closed border.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rejected a suggestion the decision went too far.
“Definitely not … my job is to protect Queenslanders’ health, to protect our economy, and to protect our lifestyle,” she said.
She said there were more than 200 active cases in NSW, with more than 100 reported in the last seven days.
“We cannot put Queenslanders at risk,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
She said Victoria now had more active cases in aged care alone than Queensland had recorded in total since the pandemic began.
She acknowledged the border closure would be tough for small businesses, particularly on the Gold Coast.
“But what would be more catastrophic … would (be) having to shut the Gold Coast (because of an outbreak),” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Ms Palaszczuk denied the decision was about politics, three months out from the state election on October 31. She said coronavirus was a matter of “life and death”.
“This (the border closure) is going to be tough for a few months, but everyone, we are in a world pandemic,” she said.
There will be exemptions for people living in border communities in the Tweed, allowing those residents to travel into Queensland to work and attend medical appointments. There will be a special border pass for those residents, which will rely on photo ID.
Ms Palaszczuk repeated her allegation that she had asked the NSW Premier some time ago to allow the Queensland border to be pushed into NSW temporarily to include those NSW border communities, but Gladys Berejiklian had rejected the suggestion.
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