Queensland wisely remains wary of effectiveness of current NSW public health response to Delta Variant Outbreak - border will remain closed for at least another 10 weeks

 

In which the NSW Berejiklian Government is unhappy to discover that the Qld Palaszczuk Government is on a drive to vaccinate its population against both the highly infectious Delta Variant of SARS-CoV-2 and Berejiklian's failed public health response which allowed COVID-19 infections to run wild in New South Wales......

ABC News, 24 August 2021:

Essential workers need to have had at least one jab to enter Queensland.
(ABC News: Cathy Border)

Queensland has confirmed that the hard border with New South Wales is likely to remain in place until at least the end of October, confirming the worst fears of businesses in the state's south.

Key points:

• Southern Gold Coast businesses are being warned they will have to take drastic measures to stay afloat over the next 10 weeks

• The NSW Cross Border Commissioner says Queensland's vaccination target and its relationship to the border closure hasn't been discussed with him

• The end of the lockdown in regional NSW will not mean Queensland's restrictions are lifted

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young hopes the restrictions will be in place for "no longer than 10 weeks", according to the health department……

NSW Cross-border Commissioner James McTavish said despite daily meetings with government officials, NSW had not been given any indication on when Queensland's border restrictions would end.

"We've not been advised of a 10-week timeframe for these border restrictions, or a 70 per cent vaccination requirement," he said.

"This is based on the timeframe in which we hope to have 70 per cent of Queenslanders fully vaccinated against COVID-19," a spokesperson said.

The Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce has written to its members warning them that stop-gap measures will not be enough to see them through.

"The only way that businesses are going to be able to salvage that is to make arrangements to go into quarantine … or to arrange for their staff to go into quarantine," president Hilary Jacobs said.

At the moment the border pass only allows a limited category of essential workers to cross into Queensland and they must have proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccination.

Mr McTavish said Queensland's response to the border situation was "heavy handed" and called for the bubble to be brought back.

"We've represented very strongly to the Queensland government that we'd like to see a reinstated arrangement for border communities — not just for Tweed, but also further afield as well," he said…...