From paying for your own hotel quarantine in Queensland to 14-day self-isolation in WA: Everything you need to know about state travel restrictions after Sydney Covid outbreak
Thousands of Sydney residents have had their Christmas holiday plans wrecked as states re-impose border restrictions due to an outbreak on the Northern Beaches.
Northern Beaches residents entering Queensland must pay for hotel quarantine from 1am on Saturday.
People in Queensland who have been in the Northern Beaches since December 11 must immediately isolate at home for 14 days and get tested.
More than 250,000 residents from the Spit Bridge up to Palm Beach have been ordered to isolate immediately amid fears of a Victoria-style outbreak.
Residents in NSW and Victoria have not been welcome in Queensland for most of 2020 – with the borders now at risk of being shut again (pictured, a Santa Claus at Brisbane Airport on December 16)
Queensland health officials are on high alert after a growing coronavirus outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches. Pictured are residents lining up to get tested at the Avalon Community Centre pop up health clinic in Sydney on Thursday
Officials say the strain of the virus is international but they don’t know how it got into the community with three cases first recorded on Wednesday.
The growing outbreak has put the Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on high alert less than three weeks after she reopened her state’s border to Greater Sydney residents for the first time since August.
The West Australian government says anyone arriving from NSW is required to self-quarantine for 14 days and get tested on day 11.
WA leader Mark McGowan announced the changes on Thursday evening after receiving the latest advice from NSW.
‘I understand these changes will cause some frustration and uncertainty for some people,’ he said.
Sydney’s northern beaches (pictured in red) will remain in lockdown until at least Sunday with 270,000 people asked to stay at home and avoid travel, amid fears the virus could spread across the whole city
Tasmania has already moved to prevent people who visited high-risk locations in NSW from travelling there.
Northern Territory authorities said anyone from the northern beaches area travelling to the NT will need to undertake 14 days of mandatory, supervised quarantine in either Alice Springs or Darwin.
Victoria similarly told entrants to the state from the northern beaches that they must get tested and quarantine in their home or accommodation for 14 days.
Meanwhile, people in NSW are being urged not to travel to the northern beaches if they don’t have to.
Northern beaches residents have been told to keep to their household groups, and work from home if they can.
An outbreak in Sydney northern beaches could ruin the Christmas travel plans for thousands of NSW and Queensland residents hoping to reunite with loved ones interstate. Pictured are residents living up to get tested in Avalon, Sydney on Thursday
They have also been told to avoid unnecessary travel outside the region, and not to visit high-risk venues including clubs, restaurants, places of worship and gyms.
The northern beaches cluster includes a residential aged care worker and a man who recently performed in a band at three RSL clubs, including in Avalon.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison is keen to have traffic flowing between the states despite the new virus cases in NSW.
Federal government frontbencher David Littleproud backed Queensland’s hotspot declaration for the Sydney virus outbreak, and called on WA to do the same.
‘You might be from Griffith and you want to see your family in Perth, you have no connection to this at all, and you are going to be locked out,’ he told the Nine Network.
‘We have to take a deep breath and just say to the WA government please follow the rest of the country here.’
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