Border will reopen early to returning Queenslanders after vaccine surge

The state’s borders will reopen to returning Queenslanders earlier than planned after mandates denying unvaccinated people a beer and a pub meal drove thousands to get the jab.

The state’s borders will reopen to returning Queenslanders earlier than planned on Sunday or Monday after mandates denying unvaccinated people a beer and a pub meal drove thousands to get the jab.

More than 17,500 Queenslanders rolled up their sleeves on Thursday – the highest number in two weeks – as authorities put the bump in numbers down to freedoms that only vaccinated people will enjoy from December.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the flurry meant Queensland should now reach its 70 per cent double-dose goal before November 19, and pledged to immediately announce when the target ticked over for about 14,000 people who were shut out of their home state 80 days ago.

Those who can’t quarantine at home will be taken to hotels, under the hotel quarantine program, but will be advised of requirements when borders swing open, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said.

“If people could just wait for that advice because if they go too early, they won’t have the right border pass to get back in,” he said.

It came as Gold Coast residents were given seven days to save Schoolies after two more community cases were recorded, although both were in home quarantine and linked to the Goondiwindi and Moree clusters.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she doesn’t want to entertain the idea of a lockdown on the Gold Coast. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

However the origins of two mystery cases on the coast have not been solved and authorities remain "concerned”.

Dr Aitken said work was happening “rapidly” to check whether the two cases has come into contact with one another, with genomic evidence they were linked to other cases in NSW and Victoria.

“If we can get through the next week, I’m quite confident Schoolies would be just fine,” Dr Aitken said.

The Premier said a “whole range of circumstances” could trigger a lockdown on the Gold Coast, but said she didn’t want to “entertain” the idea just yet and urged people to get vaccinated and tested.

Meanwhile, Ms Palaszczuk confirmed the government is considering mandating jabs for the public service, teachers and childcare educators.

And she flagged support for Doherty modelling her government has been considering for the past week that recommends schools screen students with rapid antigen tests in future outbreaks, rather than close schools and make students homeschool.

She said the plan would depend on a few complex proposals, including when approvals can be gained for rapid antigen test and the cost of it.

“But the modelling does make sense in relation to that, yes, it does, but we just have to make sure that it all stacks up,” she said.

Originally published as Border will reopen early to returning Queenslanders after vaccine surge