Queensland has temporarily shut down its border to those wanting to relocate from NSW, Victoria and the ACT because hotel quarantine is ‘full’ after the state recorded zero new Covid cases overnight.
‘We are really concerned about the pressure that the hotel quarantine system is putting on our resources,’ Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in her Wednesday morning press conference.
Ms Palaszczuk – sporting a glamorous new look – said residents seeking to relocate from Covid hotspots had overwhelmed the state’s hotel quarantine system.
‘While we have allowed genuine relocations for work and other purposes, it has overwhelmed our hotels and it has to be stopped for at least the next fortnight,’ she said. ‘Queensland is being loved to death.’
The new rules come into effect from 12pm today.
‘Queensland is being loved to death,’ Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, as she debuted a glam new look at Wednesdays Covid update
New rules for those who need to quarantine in a hotel when relocating to Queensland will require people to book a room in the hotel facility before they travel and re-apply for a border pass
From 12pm today people entering Queensland will not be permitted to enter on a right of entry pass and would need to reapply for a border pass to be allocated a time to enter in another fortnight
There were currently 5114 people in 22 quarantine hotels – 3257 from interstate and 1857 from overseas, the largest number since the hotel quarantine system was put in place in the state.
Between August 9 and 20, 2,750 people received border passes to relocate to Queensland, the premier said, including 1,983 people in one week.
Exemptions will exist for people accessing medical treatment or other special circumstances including bereavement.
‘We do not have any room at the moment,’ Ms Palaszczuk said. ‘We’re being stretched to the limit. It’s too much pressure, it’s putting our workers and our community at risk.’
‘We don’t want to see Delta coming into our community.’
She said Queensland Police and the health department had put the proposal to her to shut down hotel quarantine for a fortnight, saying there had even been requests from the Commonwealth government to resettle refugees from Afghanistan as a result of the Taliban’s takeover.
The new rules require people to book a room in a quarantine facility before they travel to Queensland.
They must also re-apply for a border pass, including returning Queensland residents.
‘Anyone who’s not already on a flight at midday will not be able to arrive simply on a right of entry pass,’ Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said.
‘Everyone who’s a Queensland resident, or seeking to relocate, will need to reapply for their pass.’
Ms D’Ath said passes would be reissued in the next fortnight allocating each applicant a time period when they would be able to arrive in Queensland so hotel room capacity could be managed.
Queensland Police stop vehicles on the border with NSW at Coolangatta. New border measures requiring essential workers entering Queensland to have had one dose of vaccine are now in place
Strict border controls between Queensland and NSW are in place as the Delta outbreak in NSW continues to spread
Border residents protest the current restrictions on NSW residents entering Queensland at Coolangatta last weekend
Ms Palaszczuk said the state had recently seen ‘surges’ above the cap on international arrivals, necessitating the new rules about hotel quarantine.
‘I want people to come home,’ she said. ‘If people want to relocate here, I want them to relocate here but we just have to do it in a sensible and orderly fashion.’
Ms Palaszczuk appeared to have a glamorous new look at today’s press conference.
‘Gladys [Berejiklian] wants hairdressers to reopen, maybe she’s jelly of Annstacia’s ‘do,’ wrote one Twitter user of the new look.
Meanwhile, two truck drivers who entered Queensland from NSW were no longer deemed positive cases.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said further testing determined the two truckies had returned false positives and were no longer deemed a risk.
‘These two truck drivers were superb, doing their routine testing and extra testing and maintained social distancing at all times, stayed at home when they weren’t driving the trucks,’ Dr Young said.
Ms Palaszczuk yesterday pushed back at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments yesterday morning that people needed to ‘get out of the cave’ and open up the country once vaccination rates reach 80 per cent.
The premier said unlike some other states, Queenslanders were already living in relative freedom.
‘Have a look at in Queensland at the moment: you can go to work and go to school, you can go watch sport, you can play community sport, you can go to a restaurant, you can go out, we haven’t given up,’ she said.
The announcement about hotel quarantine changes came as 120 Australian Defence Forces personnel today joined Queensland Police and SES volunteers to check compliance with restrictions at the NSW-Queensland border.