A passenger on a Sydney to Gold Coast flight has shared an image of a queue of people waiting in the hot sun to be cleared to enter Queensland after the premier declared the Northern Beaches a hotspot.
‘If you’re flying into the Gold Coast from today expect to stand in the sun for a while as they screen everyone entering,’ the passenger captioned the picture posted to Facebook about midday on Friday.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared Sydney’s Northern Beaches a hotspot after a coronavirus cluster in the area grew to 28 cases on Friday morning.
A passenger on board a flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast shared an image of a long line of people waiting in the hot sun for coronavirus screening to enter Queensland (pictured)
Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) declared Sydney’s Northern Beaches a hotspot after a cluster there grew to 28 cases on Friday
One person said they were waiting at Brisbane airport and there were also long lines for screening there
‘I am sitting in the lounge at Brisbane Airport after arriving 15 minutes ago from Sydney,’ one person commented on the post about 1pm Friday.
‘QLD Health, Federal Police and QLD Police are assessing every passenger as they get off for symptoms and only stopping people who have declared they have been to the Northern Beaches.’
Another person commented that they had flown from Sydney to Brisbane at 8am on Friday morning and there was no screening in place.
Queensland’s border to NSW will remain open but authorities are racing to trace anyone who came into contact with a Sydney woman who visited the northern state while infectious with coronavirus.
Those at the airport said the screening involves a set of questions, unless you have been to the Northern Beaches – with those people made to enter hotel quarantine from 1pm Saturday.
NSW recorded another 15 new local cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, taking the total number of cases in the Northern Beaches cluster to 28.
‘At this stage we will continue to observe that hotspot regime and that has been consistently followed throughout Australia as well,’ Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters on Friday.
Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak has grown to 28 cases. Pictured: Some of the places where positive cases visited
Sydneysiders packed the airport as they headed away on Christmas breaks on Thursday. Gladys Berejiklian has urged residents from the Northern Beaches to stay at home until Sunday
Northern beach residents are seen lining up at a COVID-19 pop-up testing location at Avalon Recreation Centre on December 18, 2020
‘I just want to give people that sense of security, in terms of we are following practices that other states and territories are also at this stage. So I just want to alleviate people’s concerns there.’
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said authorities are tracing everyone who came into contact with the Sydney woman who visited Queensland while infectious.
The woman in her 50s arrived in Brisbane on Virgin Airlines flight 925 at 9:30am on Wednesday before having lunch at the Glen Hotel at Eight Miles Plains.
She later stayed at a hotel on the Sunshine Coast, where she only came into contact with a receptionist, before driving a hire car back to Sydney via Brisbane.
Sydney’s domestic terminal was rammed on Friday morning as travellers rushed to get away while states increased travel restrictions
Dr Young is confident that broad contact tracing will find anyone who’s potentially at risk, but she urged people to still come forward and get tested.
‘The message remains exactly the same as it has always been: anyone in Queensland today who has any symptoms that could be related to COVID-19, so broadly any symptoms, should immediately come forward to one of our many testing sites across the state and get tested,’ she said.
The chief health officer also said anyone from Sydney’s northern beaches who has arrived during the week must immediately go into self-isolation for 14 days wherever they’re currently staying in Queensland.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said officers were meeting every flight arriving in the state and randomly intercepting cars with NSW registration plates at the border.
He said anyone from the northern beaches must fill out a border declaration before travelling to Queensland.
Residents lined up for coronavirus testing at Mona Vale Hospital in Sydney on Friday and used umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain
Officers will also be checking on visitors from that area of Sydney to make sure they’re self-isolating.
‘And if necessary taking the appropriate action to enforce that,’ Commissioner Gollschewski added.
Dr Young urged Queenslanders to be careful going into the holiday season, when a lot of mixing and socialising usually occurs.
She said maintaining 1.5-metre social distancing and checking in at all venues remains critical.
‘We just have to continue to be really cautious, we have to be sensible as we go through these next few weeks,’ Dr Young said.
‘This is a rapidly evolving situation in the northern beaches and could well expand through other parts of Sydney.
‘So here in Queensland we have to be ready.’