Returning ADF troops will have their own quarantine bubble, Minister says
Australian Defence personnel tasked with the eleventh-hour evacuation mission in Afghanistan will be granted their own COVID-19 quarantine bubble in Queensland.
A contingent of Air Force and Army personnel board a waiting KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft at RAAF Base Amberley bound for the Middle East to support evacuation efforts in Afghanistan. Picture: ADF CPL Brett Sherriff
The state’s health minister Yvette D’Ath has confirmed the government is already working with the ADF on quarantine measures for the returning soldiers.
“Any request from the ADF for personnel returning from Afghanistan to quarantine in their own bubble will be granted,” D’Ath said in a statement on Tuesday night.
The Defence Force has indicated about 400 personnel will arrive by the end of the week.
“The ADF notified us yesterday that they had secured an appropriate hotel and advised that they would submit a management plan today,” Ms D’Ath said on Wednesday.
The Queensland Government has also confirmed with the ADF that the arrival of personnel outside the international arrivals cap is appropriate.
The move follows a week of controversy in which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk apologised for pausing hotel quarantine for returning Queenslanders at the same time as NRL players and their partners were allowed into the state.
“I apologise, it was not the right thing to do when we had the pause,” the premier said on Friday.
“It shouldn’t have happened. Unfortunately, it did happen, and I extend my apologies to the public about that.”
In what is believed to be a similar arrangement as with the ADF, the NRL contingent arranged their own hotels separate from the state’s quarantine program.
Queensland’s pause on arrivals, instigated due to capacity issues, began to lift on Saturday when 50 hotel quarantine rooms became available.
