TURNING BACK 50 A DAY

IN just a month since the state government reinstated Queensland border checkpoints, more than 50 travellers a day have been turned back. The renewed border checkpoints including at the troublesome Tweed-Coolangatta dividing line have seen 1548 people in 731 vehicles trying to enter from COVID-19 hot spot Sydney turned back. The figures come as a Gold Coast woman stuck in hotel quarantine in Brisbane for longer due to the mutant strain reveals she has resorted to Only Fans to earn some money while stranded.

MORE than 50 travellers a day have been turned away from Queensland since the reintroduction of border checkpoints, as the number of entry applications soars past one million.

It is less than a month since the northern beaches outbreak suddenly made Greater Sydney off limits to Queensland and sparked a return of police checkpoints that were a fixture at the southern border for months during 2020.

Up to 6am Thursday, police manning roadside border checkpoints had refused entry to 1548 people in 731 vehicles trying to enter Queensland from the COVID hot spot of Sydney. It does not take into account people forced into quarantine or turned around at Queensland airports.

In the same time frame, 1.01 million border pass applications had been lodged since December 18 – 40,000 per day.

The current border pass system grants entry for two weeks, so the figures reflect some people who have lodged two applications, but it is still an extraordinary number.

Most of the people refused entry to Queensland were stopped at police checkpoints on the Gold Coast, with only a small number at blockades further west.

Gold Coast Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said he understood the toll border rules were taking but made no apologies for enforcing chief health officer directions.

“The CHO directives are there to ensure COVID stays out of Queensland,” he said.

“We hate to see people inconvenienced but we make no apologies for that.”