Easter travel mayhem as states flinch at new Brisbane lockdown

Easter and school holiday travel for hundreds of thousands of Australians has been upended by a COVID-19 outbreak that forced Brisbane into lockdown

Easter and school holiday travel for hundreds of thousands of Australians has been upended by a COVID-19 outbreak that forced Brisbane into lockdown, compounding the hit to battered tourism operators and small businesses as the federal government’s JobKeeper scheme winds up.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk issued the snap stay-at-home order to the Queensland capital’s 2.6 million residents after four new community-acquired cases of the hyper-infectious UK variant emerged, dashing hopes the cluster had been contained.

Western Australia immediately closed its border to Queensland while Victoria and South Australia introduced tough restrictions on travellers from Brisbane, ordering them to self-quarantine for a fortnight. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian advised holidaymakers heading north to reconsider their plans.

Declaring Greater Brisbane a coronavirus hotspot and urging other states and territories to follow suit, Ms Palaszczuk could not guarantee the three-day lockdown would end as planned on Thursday. “I know this will mean some disruption to people’s lives, but we’ve done this before,” she said. “Let’s do it now and let’s do it right.”

In rejecting the Queensland Premier’s suggestion to designate Brisbane a virus hotspot, Ms Berejiklian said NSW would keep the border open. “NSW is in a cautious position [but] we are not shutting down our border,” she said.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard called on people from Brisbane to stay away from the showpiece International Blues Festival at Byron Bay, where NSW contact tracers are scrambling to trace the movements last weekend of an infected nurse from Brisbane and her sister.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind warned operators stood to lose millions as holiday cancellations flooded in on the back of Ms Palaszczuk’s announcement.

Easter and the follow-on fortnight of school holidays are a peak time for the state’s $27bn-a-year tourism sector, which was brought to its knees by the pandemic.

“The feeling among industry is one of absolute devastation,” Mr Gschwind told The Australian. “The damage will go beyond Brisbane — consumer confidence in our inbound travellers will be devastated.

“We plead with customers not to cancel and continue to travel, especially now the JobKeeper program has ended, in a cruel twist of fate to coincide with this outbreak.”

As panicked passengers swamped airline call centres and social media sites, Qantas said it was closely monitoring the lockdown and, while its flight schedule hadn’t yet changed, cancellations were possible in the coming days.

“Qantas and Jetstar are offering increased flexibility for passengers who have bookings impacted by border restrictions, including the option to change travel dates or receive a flight credit,” a spokeswoman said.

Virgin Australia also flagged flight disruptions and potential cancellations. “While services are currently operating as normal today, changes to customer demand and booking trends may require us to adjust our forward schedule,” the airline said.

Healthcare workers take COVID-19 tests of Brisbane residents in Herston on Monday. Picture: John Gass

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the number of confirmed infections had risen to seven after the first case, involving a 26-year-old Brisbane landscaper, emerged last Thursday. Those infected included the man’s brother, friend Lachlan Simpson, who was wrongly accused by Queensland Health of throwing a party while contagious, two of Mr Simpson’s workmates, and the nurse from Princess Alexandra Hospital and her sister who visited Byron Bay for a bachelorette party.

Genomic testing has linked the landscaper to the case earlier this month of a doctor at the PA Hospital who had treated two COVID-positive returned travellers in quarantine at Brisbane’s Grand Chancellor Hotel. One of Mr Simpson’s colleagues had gone to the central Queensland town of Gladstone while infectious, widening the emergency.

“We now have significant community transmission,” Dr Young said on Monday ahead of the lockdown coming into effect in Brisbane at 5pm. “This is happening very, very quickly. It’s evolving.”

As well as the stay-at-home order for Brisbane residents, schools across the city and neighbouring Ipswich will close, as will most retail outlets and courts. Supermarkets are to stay open; restaurants and bars can serve takeaway or delivered meals.

All but essential workers must work from home for the 72 hours, during which people can only be out to buy food, exercise, see a doctor or attend to a vulnerable person. Despite Ms Palaszczuk’s plea not to panic-buy, supermarkets were mobbed on Monday.

A near-deserted shipping centre in Brisbane on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

A mask mandate would apply in Brisbane, and face coverings were recommended outside the capital where people couldn’t socially distance, the Premier said.

The three-day lockdown is modelled on one ordered in January after the UK strain, detected for the first time among quarantined occupants of the Grand Chancellor, spread to a hotel cleaner and her partner. It did the trick, and Ms Palaszczuk did not lock down over the PA Hospital cluster earlier this month.

Phone lines to hotels, caravan parks and destinations on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and the Whitsundays in north Queensland were running hot from anxious holidaymakers, tourism operators reported. Some calls were to cancel reservations.

While Noosa, a favourite of interstate tourists, remains booked out for Easter, local accommodation providers are bracing for cancellations — especially if people follow the advice of Ms Berejiklian to review their travel.

More than 27,000 Brisbane businesses coming off JobKeeper face a “tipping point” due to the new restrictions, the state’s peak small business group warns.

Additional Reporting: Patrick Commins, Sarah Elks