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Queensland Travel Update: What Are The Latest Travel Restrictions?

With Greater Brisbane now in its first day of a snap three-day lockdown until Thursday afternoon, another eight COVID-19 cases have emerged in the river city today with two clusters now totalling 15 cases. The outcome is more traveller and industry pain for the nation as states and territories impose new border restrictions for the Easter school holidays.

With Greater Brisbane now in its first day of a snap three-day lockdown until Thursday afternoon, another eight COVID-19 cases have emerged in the river city today with two clusters now totalling 15 cases. The outcome is more traveller and industry pain for the nation as states and territories impose new border restrictions for the Easter school holidays.

With the latest COVID-cluster situation rapidly unfolding in Queensland, there are fears for Easter school holiday travel plans being ruined due to new state and territory border restrictions.

Speaking at a media briefing this morning, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says today’s six new cases are believed to be linked to existing cases, while two are still under investigation.

Ms Palaszczuk says there are now two distinct clusters of the UK variant of COVID-19 in Greater Brisbane, which has been locked down for three-days to stem the spread.

“Now of course we want to get on top of this community transmission,” the premier said.

“So the steps that we took to go into this lockdown, as you can see by those numbers of community transmission today, was absolutely the right call.”

In total there are now 15 cases in the sunshine state.

Despite only recently musing that they would ideally not close their borders if new clusters arose, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, the ACT and Northern Territory have all moved quickly in a variety of ways to restrict or outright ban incoming travel from Brisbane, or the state, over the growing cluster.

The NSW border remains open to Queensland, though NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has asked residents eyeing a trip north over Easter to change their plans.

NSW is on high alert for new cases after a number of venues in Byron Bay were visited by two women from Queensland last weekend who were infected with the highly-contagious UK strain of the virus.

Byron Bay is set to host the five-day Bluesfest from this Thursday over the Easter long weekend with up to 16,000 participants expected every day. At this stage, Greater Brisbane residents will be barred from entry to the festival until at least Friday.

It’s also another devastating blow for many thousands of non-essential travel, hospitality and tourism companies ordered to close just a day after the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ended.

Aside from being forced to close through no fault of their own, they also now have no financial buffer to tide them over and cover their operational costs until they can reopen.

Will Brisbane’s snap lockdown end on Thursday at 5pm?

Brisbane_River

Ms Palaszczuk said this morning that it was too early to say if the lockdown would end on Thursday afternoon.

“We just have to take this day by day, I said that we will give you the most up to date information we can every single morning, and so far the fact that we have these cases that are linked is good news, that is good news,” She said.

“Do we expect to see more cases – probably, probably we will see more.” 

“The big question will be whether or not we see unlinked community transmission.” She said.

What are the current travel restrictions in place?

Brisbane
Brisbane

New South Wales has not closed Its border to Greater Brisbane but is advising caution for NSW residents planning to head north for the Easter holidays.

Anyone arriving in NSW from Greater Brisbane must complete a self-declaration form.

Get the latest info here

Victoria closed Its border to Greater Brisbane at 6pm on Monday night until further notice, declaring it a ‘Red Zone’. Gladstone in Queensland and the Byron Shire in NSW have also been declared ‘Orange Zones’, meaning residents travelling to VIC must isolate and get tested for COVID-19 within 72 hours of arriving.

Get the latest info here

Tasmania has closed its border until further notice with Greater Brisbane. Anyone travelling to the state from Brisbane, Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich or the Redlands will not be able to enter without quarantining for up to two weeks.

Get the latest info here

South Australia closed its border until further notice to Greater Brisbane at 4pm on Monday including Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Redlands and Logan.

Get the latest info here

Western Australia has reintroduced its hard border until further notice with Queensland, which will move from a “low risk” to a “medium risk” state. Only exempt travellers can enter WA from Queensland.

Anyone arriving in WA from Queensland since March 27 must self-quarantine for 14 days and get tested for COVID-19.

Get the latest info here

The Australian Capital Territory now considers Greater Brisbane a hot spot and is urging people against travelling there at this time. Mandatory quarantine applies to all people entering Canberra since March 15.

Get the latest info here

The Northern Territory brought in new restrictions on Monday for anyone who has been in Greater Brisbane and Gladstone since March 25, or from the Byron Shire in NSW since March 27. All arrivals must self-quarantine and get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours.

Get the latest info here