Queensland records zero new Covid cases after two truckies no risk 

Queensland has recorded zero new cases of Covid-19 as the state shut its border to people seeking to relocate to the state for two weeks.     

‘We are really concerned about the pressure that the hotel quarantine system is putting on our resources,’ Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said people seeking to relocate from Covid hotspots in NSW and Victoria had overwhelmed the state’s hotel quarantine system. 

‘While we have allowed genuine relocations for work and other purposes, it has overwhelmed our hotels and it has to be stopped for at least the next fortnight,’ she said.

As of yesterday, 5114 were in 22 quarantine hotels – 3257 from interstate and 1857 from overseas. 

Exemptions will exist for people accessing medical treatment or other special circumstances including bereavement matter.

‘We do not have any room at the moment,’ Ms Palasczuk said. ‘Queensland is being loved to death.’

She said Queensland Police and the Health department had put the proposal to shut down hotel quarantine for a fortnight, saying there had even been requests for people resettling from Afghanistan as a result of the Taliban’s takeover.

The new rules require people to book a room in a quarantine facility before they travelled to Queenalnd. 

‘Queensland is being loved to death,’ Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, as she debuted a glam new look at Wednesdays Covid update

The truck drivers entered Queensland from NSW in the St George area in the state’s far west

Other than the transit stops, both drivers are believed to have mainly stayed at home with their families. 

One of the drivers lives in the Somerset region and the other on the Sunshine Coast. 

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the cases were reported to Queensland by NSW Health late on Monday.

‘These were two truck drivers were tested as part of the surveillance program that we have in place in Australia now.’ 

Truck drivers need to be tested every seven days under the program.

‘These two truck drivers were superb, doing their routine testing and extra testing and maintained social distancing at all times, stayed at home when they weren’t driving the trucks,’ Dr Young said.

‘The risk is very low.’

Queensland Police stop vehicles on the border with NSW at Coolangatta. New border measures requiring essential workers entering Queensland to have had one dose of vaccine are now in place

Strict border controls between Queensland and NSW are in place as the Delta outbreak in NSW continues to spread

Border residents protest the current restrictions on NSW residents entering Queensland at Coolangatta last weekend 

She said the pair were retested in Queensland and both results came back negative.   

Plans to further ease some Covid restrictions in Queensland from Friday would not as yet be threatened by the two new cases.   

Ms Palaszczuk was asked whether she was worried about reports some truckies were planning a blockade of the NSW-Queenslander border to protest border controls. 

‘They can come in,’ she said of the truck drivers. ‘Freight has to be distributed around the country and there’s a national freight protocol in place, so I don’t see what the issue would be.

‘Have a look at the number of cases in NSW and Queenslanders don’t want to see those numbers coming into Queensland, that’s why there’s a border closure.’  

She also pushed back at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments yesterday morning that people needed to ‘get out of the cave’ and open up the country once vaccination rates reach 80 per cent.

The premier said unlike some other states, Queenslanders were already living in relative freedom.

‘Have a look at in Queensland at the moment: you can go to work and go to school, you can go watch sport, you can play community sport, you can go to a restaurant, you can go out, we haven’t given up,’ she said.    

Ms Palaszczuk also pressured Prime Minster Scott Morrison to provide the new Doherty Institute modelling to state premiers before National Cabinet on Friday. 

‘I haven’t seen the modelling,’ she said. ‘Apparently the PM has seen the modelling – share it with us, don’t just drop it on Friday morning. Share it with us so we can all have a look at it.’

Ms Palaszczuk said she wanted to see state-specific modelling on what load would be placed on her state’s public health system if the country incrementally opened up at 80 per cent. 

‘Everyone’s worried about the impact it has on hospitals, I mean we’re seeing large numbers of people are presenting with serious illness, dying in hospitals, you know, hospitals are going to be stretched,’ she said.

‘We’ve seen the examples around the world.’ 

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