The Queensland government has declared the Northern Beaches area of Sydney a
CCP virus hotspot, but has not closed the border to the southern state.
This means that from 1 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 19, people travelling from the hotspot area will need to quarantine for 14 days upon entry to Queensland—and at their own expense.
“This includes both interstate visitors and Queensland residents returning home,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk
wrote on Facebook on Friday. “Police will check airport arrivals and conduct random checks on the highways. Penalties apply for false declarations.”
This comes after an outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the
CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus (novel coronavirus) reached 15 new cases in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. on Thursday—taking the total number to 28.
Queensland’s border to New South Wales will remain open. However, authorities are racing to trace anyone who came into contact with a Sydney woman who visited and later tested positive for coronavirus.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the woman arrived in Brisbane on Wednesday before having lunch at the Glen Hotel at Eight Miles Plains.
She later stayed at a hotel on the Sunshine Coast, where she only came into contact with a receptionist, before driving her hire car back to Sydney via Brisbane.
Acting Premier Steven Miles
wrote on Facebook that contact tracing is underway for people who were on Virgin Australia flight VA925 on Wednesday, Dec. 16; and for people who attended The Glen Hotel in Eith Mile Plains the same day.
“At this stage, we will continue to observe that hot-spot regime and that has been consistently followed throughout Australia as well,” Palaszczuk
told reporters on Friday.
“So I just want to give people that sense of security in terms of we are following practices that other states and territories are also at this stage. So I just want to alleviate people’s concerns there,” she said.
