Queensland introduces travel declarations for all arrivals
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is warning Queensland against travel to Sydney. Photo: AAP
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is urging Queenslanders to reconsider travel to Greater Sydney after New South Wales recorded three locally acquired COVID-19 cases.
The state’s chief health officer Jeannette Young last night announced that anyone in Queensland who has visited a NSW exposure site is now required to immediately quarantine.
This requirement applies to anyone entering the state, regardless of whether they have been to a declared hotspot.
The direction was made as a widespread contact tracing effort continues in the southern state to trace the source of infection in a man from Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
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Speaking in Brisbane, Ms Palaszczuk announced all travellers to the state will now need to fill out a new Queensland Travel Declaration.
“From 1:00am Saturday, June 19, travellers arriving in Queensland will have to complete this online declaration that will make the job of contact tracing so much easier,” she said.
“Those living in border communities are exempt.”
Queensland’s new travel declaration system mirrors that used in Victoria, with a green or amber pass to be issued depending on where arrivals have been.
“A green pass indicates the individual has not been to any COVID hotspot and can travel freely into the state,” Health Minister Yvette D’Ath told Parliament on Thursday.
“An amber pass will be issued in the circumstances that someone is travelling to Queensland and has been to an interstate exposure site and applies particular quarantine conditions on the person when they arrive.”
Queensland is expecting more than 70 flights to arrive from Sydney on Thursday.
Ms Palaszczuk has also extended restrictions on travel from Greater Melbourne for another seven days, “in line with other jurisdictions”.
“New cases appearing in the community in New South Wales and Victoria show why we can never let our guard down when it comes to the pandemic,” she said.
“Queensland enjoys more freedom than most places in the world but the price of this freedom is eternal vigilance.”
Queensland recorded six new cases of COVID overnight, which were all acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine bringing the total number of active cases to 26..
A record 14,054 vaccine were administered in the past 24 hours.
-with agencies