INDUSTRY NEWSNew South WalesNEWSQLD

Queensland’s border may open to Sydneysiders in under a fortnight

More hopeful border news, following on from the pending reopening of South Australia to all NSW residents, and the softening of Queensland’s restrictions to allow 41 postcodes near the border to cross freely from October 1.

The Queensland Government has pledged that its border will be open to all NSW residents if the state can make it 28 days, or two incubation periods, without any untraceable infections.

The last case that couldn’t be traced to a cluster was reported by NSW Health on September 7, meaning Sydneysiders could be crossing the border as soon as October 5.

This could mean people passing freely between Queensland and New South Wales in less than a fortnight.

Queensland health authorities say there cannot be a single case of infection “where the contact tracing and testing is unable to identify how the person was infected” during a four-week period.

Gladys Berejiklian was confused by the wording of Queensland’s pledge.

“I’m not sure what the definition is but I know that either way, it’s a very difficult benchmark,” she said.

“I welcome [the 41 postcode announcement] and obviously ­encourage Queensland to go further, given where NSW is in the pandemic,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“It is time for the Queensland government to bring down the whole border. It’s sad to think that families at Christmas could be separated when borders are up unnecessarily.”

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Nathan Jolly

Nathan Jolly was an in-house journalist with Elite Agent. He worked with the company from July 2020 to December 2020.