BACK TO THE FUTURE
Border, testing clinic queues as city back on high alert
BORDER barriers which plagued southern Gold Coast and split Tweed-Coolangatta for 250 days this year are back – as are motorist and COVID-19 testing station queues. Just 21 days after their removal, barricades to help police maintain a hard border closure to keep out people from Greater Sydney are being erected again. It comes as the NSW metropolis hit 83 virus cases and Coasters rushed to city testing clinics.
MAYOR Tom Tate has pleaded with Gold Coast residents and visitors to do the right thing as maskless Christmas crowds pack in shoulder to shoulder at bustling city shopping centres.
He has warned social distancing and other COVID-19 prevention measures are crucial to avoid tougher restrictions being imposed, and the potential spread of the relentless virus.
The state government has already closed the border to almost five million Greater Sydney residents in response to an outbreak in the Harbour City, which reached 83 cases on Monday.
Controversial hard border checkpoints are back at the Queensland-New South Wales border, which dissected Tweed and Coolangatta for 250 days this year.
Cr Tate was unhappy to see the hard closure implemented, but felt it was necessary.
“Tackling community transmission requires a range of measures and, while I don’t want to see hard border closures, we have to all work together and follow the best health advice,” he said.
“People must social distance if we want to maintain the state’s current response to the virus. I urge people to do everything asked of them.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said barricades would be reinstated to enforce the hard closure with Greater Sydney.
Queensland had recorded one new coronavirus case, a quarantined traveller who returned from overseas, she said. The state had 10 active cases.
“This is really important, we want everyone to do the right thing, so people will be turned around,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Queensland Health said in a statement 16,350 tests had been performed in four days – an increase of 66 per cent compared with earlier in the month.
Dozens have been turned back at the border after Greater Sydney was declared a hotspot as of 1am on Monday.
Traffic was lined up for more than 15km, stretching from the Tweed-Coolangatta border to Kingscliff.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said a case linked to the Avalon COVID-19 cluster in Sydney’s Northern Beaches had visited Glen Hotel at Eight Mile Plains in Brisbane.
She urged anyone who visited the hotel to come forward, and 560 people had done so.
Echoing the Premier, Dr Young pushed Queenslanders who visited Sydney’s Northern Beaches to get tested for the virus.
Giant queues were reported at Coast testing clinics on Monday, including at Gold Coast University Hospital and Upper Coomera Respiratory Clinic.
The rush to clinics followed Dr Young revealing virus fragments had been found in Gold Coast sewage.
She was concerned about the existence of active cases in Queensland. Meanwhile, face masks are again compulsory for patients attending medical appointments.
Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan is self-isolating while waiting for the results of a COVID test, having returned from Sydney in recent days.
Mr Donovan said he was disappointed border controls were being ramped up but was confident the city would put its best foot forward through the Christmas period.
“This is all because of the small number of people who were cheating the system and were not doing the right thing and have jeopardised everything,” he said. “Now we have to live with it but I think we will make the best of it.”
Each year, Greater Sydney injects $225m into the Coast’s economy over the summer period. NSW recorded 15 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Monday and more than 38,000 tests had been undertaken.
Ms Palaszczuk said anyone entering Queensland from NSW, including Queenslanders, must now complete a border declaration pass online beforehand.
Anyone who has been in Greater Sydney since December 11 will not be allowed into Queensland without an exemption. If an exemption is granted, travellers must go into hotel quarantine for 14 days.
To find your nearest COVID-19 testing centre, visit the Queensland Health website, contact your local hospital or phone 13 HEALTH.