Man hospitalised then quarantined

AN ELDERLY Gold Coast man was among three passengers who were forced off the interstate bus they were travelling on after spending an hour in COVID-19 hotspot Sydney.

The travellers arrived at the Griffith St border checkpoint on Friday morning from Eden on the NSW south coast.

All three, including Mudgeeraba man Graham McKerlie, were told they would have to go into mandatory quarantine for 14 days.

Gold Coast Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the 78-year-old man was questioned by police who discovered he had come directly from a COVID-19 hot spot.

Supt Wheeler said Mr McKerlie had been walking outside in Sydney when the coach he was travelling on stopped for one hour.

“He was questioned and it was established he’d come from a COVID-19 hotspot, so by virtue of the Chief Health Officer’s direction, he had to go into mandatory quarantine,” Supt Wheeler said.

“All buses that come into our checkpoints, particularly the one here at Griffith St, all of the passengers on board are scrutinised to make sure they haven’t come from a COVID-19 hotspot.”

Officers called an ambulance for Mr McKerlie, who was having trouble breathing.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said he was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

It was a busy day for officers manning the Coolangatta border checkpoint, with them also intercepting three backpackers who had travelled from NSW.

The men were refused entry after road tripping north from Jervis Bay in NSW.

After the men were stopped, plain clothes police officers searched their car and were seen opening backpacks and rifling through clothes.

One of the men, a Belgian national, said he had “no idea what we’re going to do” when told to turn around.