The Sunshine Coast will join the rest of South East Queensland, Townsville, Palm Island and Magnetic Island in a three-day lockdown from 6pm on Tuesday, June 29, amid grave concerns there are too many loose ends of the virus in Queensland.
The lockdown includes 11 local government areas and follows four positive tests overnight, one of which was considered of concern.
The areas of Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley, the Scenic Rim, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Magnetic Island and Palm Island will be subject to the order.
It will end at 6pm on Friday, July 2.
“I want to say to everyone, I know we are in the middle of school holidays, and I know people have made plans, but we have just got to do this,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
“We have got to do this for three days. There will be a lockdown for three days, and I don’t want it to be 30 days.”
Residents in those areas will only be allowed to leave home to shop for essential items, exercise or receive or give medical care.
It follows the government enforcing a mask mandate across the same 11 SEQ local government areas which was to continue for two weeks.
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Ms Palaszczuk said one of the four new cases was a miner from Ipswich, who was of low concern, and there were two cases in hotel quarantine.
The fourth was a community-acquired case involving a 19-year-old casual clerical worker, from Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital, who sat outside the COVID ward.
The young hospital employee, who lives at Sandgate, had recently travelled to Townsville and visited Magnetic Island and the Sunday markets.
The woman had also been to the Woolworths supermarket at Sandgate and Bay Health Gym.
The full updated list of exposure sites in Queensland is here.
Dr Jeannette Young said the latest case was a “critical risk” and came on top of a number of ongoing worrying scenarios, including the Sydney flight attendant who had travelled to five cities, the 170 miners and a Portuguese restaurant in Brisbane.
One of the 170 miners tested positive to the Delta variant while on the Sunshine Coast.
Ms Palaszczuk said she was “absolutely furious” that the hospital cleric, who had tested positive, was not vaccinated when she should have been.
She again criticised the ongoing arrival of overseas travellers and the hotel quarantine system which was under pressure and constantly the source of outbreaks.
“Hotel quarantine is just not the answer,” she said.
“We need a massive reduction in overseas arrivals. I am urging the Prime Minister to reduce the caps.”
Also in lockdown are Darwin, Perth and WA’s Peel region and Sydney.
Lockdown rules
- Restrictions apply for Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley, the Scenic Rim, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Magnetic Island and Palm Island.
- The lockdown comes into effect at 6pm on Tuesday and will lift at 6pm on Friday, unless the situation worsens.
- Residents can only leave home for essential shopping, exercising, essential work or study that cannot be done from home, caregiving or to access healthcare, including getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
- Face masks are compulsory in all indoor non-residential settings, including workplaces, and at organised outdoor events.
- Visitors to households limited to two, including children.
- Restaurants and cafes will only be allowed to provide takeaway and home delivery.
- All non-essential shops must close: Cinemas, entertainment and recreation venues, hairdressers, beauty and personal care services, gyms and places of worship will all close.
- QR codes will be mandatory for all venues, including when picking up takeaway food.
- Only 10 people will be allowed to attend weddings and no dancing or singing is allowed.
- Only 20 people will be allowed to attend a funeral.
Earlier
One of the 170 miners has already tested positive to the variant while on the Sunshine Coast.
Health authorities are waiting on test results for the other 169, who have been ordered into isolation.
It’s unclear how widely the group dispersed after returning to Queensland last week from the Newmont-owned Granites gold mine, about 540km northwest of Alice Springs.
In all, 900 fly-in, fly-out workers left the mine for locations across Australia after a worker from Victoria became infected while passing through a quarantine hotel in Brisbane, en route to the mine.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday warned Queensland was on the verge of another lockdown, and Tuesday and Wednesday’s test results would determine which way things went.
There’s also high level concern about passengers who travelled with an infected crew member on flights from Sydney to Brisbane and the Gold Coast over the weekend.
“We will not hesitate to take action,” the premier warned after mandating the use of masks in 11 local government areas across South East Queensland for a fortnight.
On Monday evening, six Virgin flights into and out of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin and the Gold Coast on June 25-26 were added as COVID-19 exposure sites by Queensland Health.
Meanwhile, Queensland’s war with the Federal Government over purpose-built quarantine facilities is rolling on.
The Queensland government says hotel quarantine for international travellers is Australia’s greatest single source of COVID-19, and has accused the federal government of letting in too many foreigners.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles has claimed half the people coming in to Australia are not citizens or permanent residents, but others who’ve been granted travel exemptions.
Queensland is seeking to cut overseas arrivals, saying the volume is putting pressure on a hotel quarantine system that’s already failing, and was never designed for infection control.
“But we wouldn’t be in this situation, we wouldn’t be reducing our number of international arrivals, if we had purpose-built facilities which would, could have been up and running now,” he said on Monday.
Queensland is still demanding the Federal Government approve its plans for a purpose-built quarantine centre outside Toowoomba, even thought Canberra has repeatedly rejected it and wants one built on Commonwealth land in Brisbane.
Mr Miles says if both 1000-bed facilities are built, reliance on hotel quarantine will be dramatically less. Currently there are 2300 people in hotel quarantine in the state.
Meanwhile, Perth has joined Sydney and Darwin in lockdown after another confirmed virus case in the west.
A four-day stay-at-home order for Perth and the neighbouring Peel region started at midnight, just hours after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced new measures in the coronavirus battle.
Aged care and quarantine workers will be compelled to get a COVID-19 jab and doctors allowed to give the AstraZeneca shot to under-60s as governments seek to revive the vaccine rollout.
The prime minister met with state and territory leaders for a virtual national cabinet meeting on Monday, as the proportion of fully vaccinated Australians stood at just under five per cent.
Until now the advice from medical experts has been not to force workers to be vaccinated.
But Mr Morrison said that advice had changed and state public health orders and Commonwealth measures would be used to enforce the new rules, with the aim of completing the task by mid-September.
“This has been a difficult group to get vaccinated (but) … I’m pleased we have finally got here tonight,” he said.
Advocates in the sector have been concerned forced vaccinations will lead to a flood of staff leaving, or large gaps in rosters as workers are impacted by vaccine side-effects.
To make this easier, the Federal Government will provide $11 million to cover paid leave for workers having vaccinations.
Vaccination and testing of all quarantine workers will also be made mandatory, including those involved in transporting people to quarantine.
The states and territories will be in charge of the program and no timeframe has been set for its completion.
National cabinet also agreed to compulsory post-quarantine testing for returned travellers, which must occur two to three days after they leave.
As well, there will be a ban on accommodating low-risk domestic travellers next door to high-risk international arrivals, which triggered an outbreak in Queensland.
Travellers who have gone through 14-day quarantine in one jurisdiction will be able to enter other jurisdictions without having to quarantine for a further 14 days.
And in a bid to encourage broader vaccination, the federal government will provide a no fault indemnity scheme for GPs who administer COVID-19 vaccines.
