Queensland has become the latest state to announce it is closing its borders, along with South Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and Western Australia in a bid to halt COVID-19 spreading.
Queensland’s borders will close at midnight on Wednesday, while Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia announced border control measures on Sunday.
However, Victoria’s borders with NSW and SA will remain open.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, in making the announcement on social media on Monday, it will mean people entering the state, particularly those returning from holiday or interstate travel, must isolate themselves for 14 days.
Officials are working out the finer details of who it will apply to and how it will be regulated, which will be released on Tuesday.
The closure is made more complex by the southern border running through the middle of the Gold Coast.
Tweet from @AnnastaciaMP
It comes after people were banned from hanging out publicly and in large groups to comply with Australia’s strict new social shutdown policies.
South Australia
South Australia has introduced border measures which will come into effect on Tuesday afternoon, with 12 control stations to be established.
Police also on duty at train stations and airports.
Anybody entering the state from that time will be asked to sign a declaration that they will self-isolate for 14 days.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said it was expected the border controls would prompt most people to reconsider travelling into or out of SA.
He said exemptions would apply to emergency workers and other essential services as well as people who lived close to the border and had a need to make regular crossings.
Queensland
Ms Palaszczuk says the national closure of bars, pubs, clubs, casinos, indoor sports venues and religious venues to control coronavirus is being enforced.
Queenslanders must take the new measures seriously.
Health Minister Steven Miles says there have been 60 additional cases confirmed overnight, bringing the state’s total to 319.
“I talked yesterday about some tough love and more will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Monday.
“We know that if we are all playing our part and we’re all working together, we can absolutely get through this.”
She said there was light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel, but only if everyone followed orders to stay 1.5 metres away from each other, and the government’s social closure orders.
Holidays planned during the school break should also be cancelled.
That means families are barred from packing up the car and hitting the road, going camping or heading to the beach.
Hospitals are beginning to reschedule less urgent surgeries to make way for those in need of treatment for COVID-19, and Queenslanders are being urged to donate blood.
The arrival of four cruise ships in Sydney carrying thousands of people who have since spread across Australia has Mr Miles worried after some passengers tested positive for the illness.
“We’re in the process of contacting all of them,” he said.
“They are all required to cut themselves off for 14 days.”
Victoria says borders will remain open
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed Victoria’s borders with NSW and SA will remain open, despite moves by other states to close theirs.
“I’m not interested in closing our borders I don’t think that makes a lot of sense for us,” he told reporters.
Mr Andrews cited Albury Wodonga Health as an example, saying the cross-border public hospital was run by the state government.
“There will be similar examples on other border towns along the Murray (River),” he said.
The premier said if people follow the latest restrictions, including on non-essential travel, the borders could remain open.
“If social distancing is applied, if people use common sense, act in their interest in and the interest of everybody else, instead of acting in a selfish way, then I don’t think we need to get to the point (of shutting borders),” Mr Andrews said.
Any Victorian entering SA will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, and the border controls will apply to all road, air, rail and sea access points.
-with AAP
The post Border control: Qld latest state to close borders to slow virus spread appeared first on The New Daily.
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