Doctors issue a new prescription: ‘Quarantine all visitors’

Non-essential travellers from COVID-19 hot spots like Brisbane or the Gold and Sunshine Coasts into regional areas should be forced into mandatory 14-day quarantine, they say, with checkpoints at road, rail and air entry points to track them.

Townsville has five confirmed cases of coronavirus so far. Oncologist Dr Abhishek Joshi, part of the group of doctors that includes gynaecologist Dr Ajay Rane OAM, surgeons and anaesthesiologists, said regional spots like Townsville would not have the capacity to deal with a blow of COVID-19 when compared to the better resourced metropolitan hospitals.

Border measures would also protect vulnerable communities like Hinchinbrook and the Burdekin, where a third or more of the population is aged 60 or older, Magnetic Island, and Palm Island.

With state and territory borders now shut, there was now more risk of the infection making its way north via Brisbane than from interstate.

And there is no time to waste, with calls for the State Government to implement this now or risk playing “catch up”.

“We still have this window of opportunity to consider these border closing measures,” Dr Joshi said. “This is going to turn out really bad if we don’t be really harsh.

“We are not blaming anyone, but we have the right to protect our community.”

The proposal has already been flagged for Western Australia by its Premier Mark Mcgowan but while it has been talked about within the Queensland Government, the measures are unlikely to go ahead at this stage.

It will likely also be a logistical nightmare for the State Government due to the decentralised nature of Queensland.

Queensland’s peak body for rural doctors has also supported the measure, warning medical resources in regional areas is “finite” and city travellers who show up and get sick may not be able to get the care they need to fight COVID-19.

Health Minister Steven Miles said taking the unprecedented step of closing Queensland’s border meant people from interstate couldn’t holiday on Magnetic Island or the Whitsundays during the pandemic, but stopped short of supporting internal regional border shutdowns.

“We’ve also urged Queenslanders not to undertake any unnecessary travel and stay in their local communities,” he said.

Oncologist Professor Sabe Sabesan said it didn’t make sense that someone could travel from Brisbane to Lismore, New South Wales and be forced into 14 days of quarantine when they return, but they could travel from Brisbane to Townsville.