Queensland is to turn away all Victorians from Friday, amid fears the southern state’s coronavirus crisis could spread.
Victoria’s surge in new COVID cases – it now has 860 active infections – prompted the hardened stance from Queensland.
“From noon, July 10, visitors from Victoria will no longer gain access or be able to quarantine in Queensland,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a tweet on Thursday.
“They will be turned around.”
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Queensland had no new virus cases to report on Thursday. It has only two active cases statewide, one of them an 81-year-old man who has been ill for four months.
Its borders have been closed since mid-March to stop the spread of COVID-19 but will reopen to all other states and territories as part of the stage three easing of restrictions from noon on Friday.
Anyone wanting to enter Queensland will need to have completed a border declaration and have ID available, either when they arrive at an airport or at a road crossing.
Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said the state welcomed NSW’s decision to close its border with Victoria. But the lag between Victoria’s spiralling community transmission and the border closure meant there was “a week to 10 days where there is an escalated risk” of further transmission of COVID.
“We can’t afford to import that risk from other states,” he said.
Tweet from @AnnastaciaMP
A Sydney man found out how serious Queensland is about border crossings after he was fined $4003 for carrying a fake ID and lying about needing to enter for essential medical treatment.
The 43-year-old was travelling from NSW on a bus that was stopped by police at the Griffith Street border checkpoint on Wednesday morning.
-with AAP
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