Western Australia hard border with Queensland Lockdown Covid-19 UK Variant

Queensland’s latest Covid-19 cluster of community-spread coronavirus cases has grown to seven. The cluster includes seven people and is linked to a doctor who tested positive in early March

A 26-year-old landscaper from Stafford, in Brisbane’s inner-north, tested positive on March 25.

Genomic testing confirmed the man had the highly transmissible UK variant, B117, and was linked to the previous cluster announced on March 12 that included a doctor at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and two returned travellers, according to the Queensland Health Department.

The emergence of four of those cases in the past 24 hours has prompted a three-day lockdown of Greater Brisbane from 5:00 pm today.

Authorities said the Stafford man may have been infectious in the community for a week when he visited a number of venues across Brisbane. A friend of the landscaper, a man in his 20s from Strathpine north of Brisbane, tested positive on Saturday.

Western Australia hard border with Queensland Lockdown Covid-19 UK Variant

Queensland Health Department issued a public health alert, wrongly claiming that he had hosted a gathering of 25 people at his home after being instructed to isolate until receiving test results.

Police yesterday confirmed the man had not breached self-isolation requirements and he had only been home with his roommates and another close contact. Two of the Strathpine man’s colleagues tested positive on Sunday.

One of them was in the central Queensland city of Gladstone for three days – March 25 to March 28 — while infectious, according to Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young.

Testing on the landscaper’s brother has revealed he previously had the virus but recovered.

Dr Young said the man appeared to be the “missing link” between this cluster and the cluster that spread from hotel quarantine to the Princess Alexandra hospital in early March.
A Princess Alexandra Hospital nurse who worked in the COVID-19 ward tested positive – the second public hospital frontline health care worker to contract the virus this month.

Tests are yet to confirm whether she was infected at work. Like the doctor, she had not been vaccinated. The nurse’s sister is also positive. Health authorities say they do not know where she was infected, but Dr Young says the two women were recently in Byron Bay while infectious.

Queensland health and government authorities say they will be sharing the dates with NSW when they are known.

In the wake of the escalating situation overnight, Western Australia will re-introduce a hard border for travel from Queensland, said premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan.
Following updated advice from the WA Chief Health Officer this morning, Queensland will transition from a ‘low risk’ State to a ‘medium risk’ State under WA’s controlled interstate border regime, from 12:01 am tomorrow, 30 March 2021.

Travel from Queensland will no longer be permitted unless you are an exempt traveller. Western Australia issued a Hard border

This also applies to anyone who may have been in Queensland since 27 March and has not completed 14 days in a ‘very low risk’ State or Territory.
The exemption list is limited to:

The final category includes compassionate reasons – including those Western Australians that may have travelled to Queensland recently and need to return to WA.
Exempt travellers arriving to Western Australia must:

Anyone who has arrived in WA from Queensland between March 20 and March 26 (inclusive) will continue to be contacted by WA Police, using the G2G Pass system, with the latest advice regarding new Queensland and Byron Bay locations.

It is important that these people familiarise themselves with the latest exposure sites, as contact tracing continues to uncover more sites. Information can be viewed here: https://www.qld.gov.au/…/current-status/contact-tracing and https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/…/case-locations-and…

People who have been to these exposure locations must get tested immediately, self-quarantine for 14 days and present for a day 11 test.
For anyone who has come into contact with someone who recently arrived from Queensland, self-quarantine is not necessary and COVID-19 testing is only required if symptoms develop.
As previously announced, anyone who has arrived from Queensland since 12:01 AM, Saturday 27 March is required to:

For more information on these and other COVID-19 measures, please visit www.wa.gov.au/covid19

We are thinking of our friends and family in Queensland as they go into lockdown this evening, they are doing the right thing to keep Queensland safe and protect us all across the country, Said premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan.

We have been monitoring the situation closely and have scaled up our border controls as required to keep our community safe – this hard border measure is necessary and our best defence in keeping the virus out.

I know this change will be disruptive for many people and put many people’s plans in disarray, however, we need to put the health of our WA community first.
If you are a recent arrival from Queensland or arriving today, before midnight, you are free to depart WA and return to Queensland.

Western Australia hard border with Queensland Lockdown Covid-19 UK Variant