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Infected truckies a sign that NSW outbreak is worse than thought: Palaszczuk

Queensland has tentatively reopened the ‘border bubble’ with NSW despite fears the Delta variant is already being carried north and will inevitably spark another outbreak.

Sep 13, 2021, updated Sep 13, 2021
Scenes on the Pacific Motorway at the Queensland and New South Wales border  on the Gold Coast, Friday, July 23, 2021. (AAP Image/Jason O'Brien)

Scenes on the Pacific Motorway at the Queensland and New South Wales border on the Gold Coast, Friday, July 23, 2021. (AAP Image/Jason O'Brien)

People in 12 northern NSW local government areas that came out of lockdown on Saturday can apply for permission to travel to Queensland for certain purposes, under a limited version of the bubble put in place last year for border communities.

Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski today revealed the new requirements were still lost on some, with essential workers being turned back for not showing evidence they have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

But the biggest concern for Queensland Health remains those people who travel for a living, specifically the prospect of truck drivers, some unvaccinated, picking up the coronavirus in NSW and bringing it north.

Already, at least nine truck drivers have come into Queensland while infected, most returning to NSW before the alarm was raised (their cases are not added to the Queensland tally but their exposure sites are).

The delay in routine test results being communicated to Queensland prompted Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to question whether NSW had bigger problems than it reported.

“I think there’s a lot more virus in New South Wales but they can’t cope with the testing,” Palaszczuk said today.

Her comments would appear to suggest that the daily tally reported by NSW – including 1,257 today – underestimates the scale of the problem. Queensland today reported four new cases of COVID-19, including two students from the St Thomas More College cluster, both in home quarantine.

Queensland has also expressed concern over the patchy wastewater testing being conducted in NSW. It has been used for surveillance in Queensland, but some sites have gone untested in NSW (viral fragments were today detected as far north as Tamworth).

For weeks, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has nominated truck drivers as the biggest threat to Queensland, but acknowledged there is little alternative to allowing them to carry freight all over Australia with routine testing.

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Other jurisdictions are considering mandatory vaccinations for truck drivers, and Palaszczuk suggested Australia’s transport ministers were continually reviewing the requirements for the thousands who cross into Queensland every day.

NSW reported another seven deaths today – as many in a day as Queensland has recorded during the entire pandemic – amid fears the peak has yet to arrive. There are currently 1189 COVID-19 patients in NSW hospitals, with 222 in intensive care beds and 94 on ventilators.

Victoria today reported another 473 locally-acquired cases.

Queensland’s hotel quarantine system came under such strain Palaszczuk announced a ‘pause’ on people being allowed to cross the border and check-in. That coincided with footballers’ entourage being able to charter a flight to Queensland to enter their separate quarantine bubble, something Palaszczuk said was a mistake.

Criticism of Queensland’s border restriction exemptions process also prompted Palaszczuk to assign more staff to the unit responsible for advising on applications.

The number of daily applications for exemptions decreased from 608 in the 24 hours to 7am on August 26 – during which time 211 were processed – to 234 in the 24 hours to 7am on September 9 (442 processed). Over that period, the number of applications on hand, and yet to be decided, fell from 4,228 to 3,663.

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