From 4pm Thursday for the next two weeks, people living in Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Logan, the Gold Coast, Townsville and Palm Island will be restricted to having 30 people in their homes, including residents and visitors.

Weddings and funerals will be limited to 100 people. Cafes and restaurants will only be allowed one person per four square metres and people will be also required to be seated when drinking at pubs and other venues.

Under the restrictions, capacity at Sunday’s National Rugby League grand final between the Penrith Panthers and the Rabbitohs at Suncorp Stadium will be capped at 75 per cent. A 75 per cent cap will also be introduced at cinemas and theatres in affected local government areas.

Mask-wearing will be mandated indoors, including on public transport and for high school students in the classroom. They must also be worn outside when people cannot socially distance.

“I think everyone realises that we’ve got to put these restrictions in place if we are to avoid a lockdown at this stage,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. “We want to make sure this is not seeding into the community. The next 24 to 48 hours is going to be very critical.

Four of the new cases are linked to the Brisbane aviation training facility cluster, including a pilot who flew to Townsville on September 21 and was infectious in the community for seven days. The pilot was fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

A separate infection involved a woman from Camp Hill, on Brisbane’s southside, who caught the virus while visiting Kyogle, in northern NSW. She was infectious in the community from September 25-28.

The sixth case was detected in hotel quarantine after a woman returned to Queensland from Melbourne on Virgin Airways flight VA333 on September 27. The woman was infectious on the flight.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said contact tracers believed the aviation training facility cluster of eight people, including one in NSW, emanated from a meeting on September 20.

“We have people … in Townsville, Hamilton, Biggera Waters on the Gold Coast, North Lakes and Eatons Hill who’ve been amongst those eight people,” Young said.

No further cases have been linked to two cross-border truck drivers diagnosed this week with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, who both spent time in the Queensland community while infectious.

“Although we haven’t seen any community cases expand out from any of these known clusters, there are so many of them now, which is a concern,” Young said.

Palaszczuk denied the NRL grand final had influenced the decision against a lockdown at this stage. “Let me make it very clear that the health of Queenslanders comes first and as soon as Dr Young says we need to move into a lockdown, we will,” the Premier said.

“As soon as we see further seeding, which is not from people in isolation, then they will be the trigger points that Dr Young will look at.”

NSW recorded 941 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases and six deaths in the 24 hours to 8:00pm yesterday.  Four people were not vaccinated and two people had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Victorian authorities say illegal gatherings and house parties over the grand final day long weekend are behind the dramatic jump in COVID-19 infections in the state.

The state has recorded 1,438 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and five further deaths.

Meanwhile, a campaign by health unions kicked off in Cairns on Thursday calling for urgent action by the federal and state governments to address unprecedented demand on health services and hospital beds.

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union regional north team leader Grant Burton said members were not confident the Cairns Hospital would cope with a COVID-19 virus outbreak.
“Sadly, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when we get COVID cases,” Burton said. “We need to make sure there’s enough health workers.”

He said the issue was a problem for health services across the state.
“We’re calling on the federal and state governments to come together with the unions, with the health workers, to look at a sustainable fix for our health system,” Burton said. “This is looking at succession planning, this is building a sustainable health service for our communities in Queensland.”

He said border closures were making recruitment difficult and vaccine mandates for staff working in, or visiting, patient care settings, may also lead to health worker shortages.
“It’s personal choice whether you get vaccinated or not. We certainly encourage our members to consider the benefits and the risks,” Burton said.

“Those that don’t for whatever personal reason, medical reasons and other things, we will potentially see further deficits in staffing in regards to it. Just one nurse taken away from a floor, one doctor, one allied health worker, that’s added workload to someone else.
“It creates a big hole. We’re going to see clinicians burnt out.”