Queensland Is Closing Its Borders To Sydney After Declaring It The Latest COVID-19 Hotspot
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says it will hurt QLD more than it hurts NSW, and sure Jan.
The Queensland border is being closed to anyone from Greater Sydney, with the NSW capital declared a coronavirus hotspot.
Today Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that from 1am Saturday no one from Greater Sydney will be allowed into the state, and any Queensland residents returning from there will also have to go into hotel quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.
BREAKING: Queensland will close its borders to all of Greater Sydney. From 1am Saturday, more hotspots will be declared and no one from Sydney will be allowed into Queensland. #COVID19au pic.twitter.com/044iZeTZ1g
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) July 29, 2020
Queensland has not had a new case of COVID-19 outside of quarantine since May — until today, when they recorded two.
The two people in question travelled to Melbourne via Sydney and lied about it, leading to a school in Logan (where one worked as a cleaner) being closed today for deep cleaning and contact tracing.
The Sunshine state closed its borders in late March, but on July 10 they relaxed those restrictions to allow people to enter unless they had been in a coronavirus hotspot in the last 14 days.
Until today that list included all of Victoria as well as the outer Sydney suburbs of Campbelltown City, Fairfield City and Liverpool City. With community transmission in NSW growing and clusters now popping up in the Potts Point area, today they added an extra 31 local government areas in Sydney to that list of hotspots.
The announcement blindsided NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who didn’t seem too pleased at a press conference — saying it would hurt Queensland much more than it would hurt NSW.
“The economic consequences in Queensland or South Australia will hurt much more than it hurts NSW, we are in the strongest position in the nation, which we want to maintain obviously,” she said.
In a press conference announcing the news, Palaszczuk said they had to do everything they can in these “extraordinary times”.
“It is going to cause an inconvenience … but it is too important, we must protect Queenslanders. Your safety comes first.”
NSW recorded 19 new COVID-19 cases in the 24-hours to 8pm last night, two of which are in hotel quarantine.
Feature Image: Wikimedia Commons/ Bernard Gagnon
