Every time grey nomads feel like the borderless Big Lap is within touching distance, another Covid outbreak seems to scupper the dream
And so it is again with Melbourne’s Holiday Inn cluster sparking considerable concern, especially given that the more contagious British variant is in play.
With 13 cases now linked to the hotel, the entire state of Victoria is now entering a five-day snap lockdown.
And state and territory governments across Australia are also tightening their border restrictions with Victoria.
Queensland will close its borders to Greater Melbourne for two weeks from 1am tomorrow morning. The state’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the two-week period will allow Queensland contact tracers time to contact and test the more than 1500 people now in Queensland who passed through Terminal Four of Melbourne Airport while an infected worker was there.
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has implemented a hard border with Victoria for 72 hours, starting at 6pm AWST (9pm AEDT) tonight. He said the measures were needed to be ‘extra cautious’. Victorians seeking to enter WA already have to quarantine for 14 days and return a negative Covid test.
Tasmania is introducing a hard border to all of Victoria, which will be classified as ‘high risk’ from midnight tonight.
Premier Peter Gutwein said if anyone tried to enter Tasmania from Victoria after the border closed, they would be denied entry unless they had approval from the State Controller. The decision will be reviewed if Victoria’s five-day lockdown lifts as planned on Wednesday night.
South Australia introduced a hard border for anyone travelling from the Greater Melbourne area yesterday.
The NT this morning labelled the whole of Greater Melbourne and Melbourne Airport a Covid-19 hotspot. Anyone from there attempting to enter the NT will now be obliged to undertake a 14-day quarantine at Howard Springs.
From midnight tonight, anyone who enters the ACT from Victoria will have to self-isolate for 14 days.
However, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has ruled out shutting the border to Victoria although she admitted the new outbreak was ‘concerning’.
“The one and only occasion where we have closed the border was to Victoria and that is when they had in excess of 150 cases a day,” she said. “We are nowhere near that. At this stage we think it is manageable.”
However, anyone who has arrived in NSW from Victoriaa since January 29 will have to follow the same ‘stay-at-home’ rules Victorians are under from midnight tonight for five days.
Why dont they all bloody grow up this is destroying peoples health and well being, yes its a virus but do you behave like that each year with the Flu that kills over 4000 a year, NO YOU DONT
Sarbi, if you think the Covid 19 is a flu, you are sadly misinformed.
Stop talking about this virus like you know something about it, because you don’t. I am really glad you aren’t leading Australia because if you were, we would be in dire straits.
More people die from DV every day
Where is the national strategy on that
The old flu comparison is just so ignorant. Details from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu state the following “Doctors and scientists are working to estimate the mortality rate of COVID-19, but at present, it is thought to be substantially higher (possibly 10 times or more) than that of most strains of the flu.”
But sadly scientific facts won’t alter peoples hard wired beliefs as they genuinely believe they know better, all it usually does is galvanise there thinking while spreading there miss truths like a virus.
While people continue to come in from overseas, which unfortunately affects Australians citizens as well, we will continue to get these transmissions. Can’t wait for the vaccinations to come into effect.
This is no surprise considering that he extended the state of emergency powers when there was no reason to, and now he’s just playing everyone for suckers and revelling in his dictatorial powers.
Wake up Victoria, this man is dangerous.
Someone get a muppet hook and pull this clown off centre stage … permanently!
15 cases and the world stops ! Wa had 1 case of the so called english thing , shut down for a week NIL other case from this one. Only answer is to stop people coming into VIC because for the 3rd or 4th time it has been proved Vic is a basket case, NSW had several cases in northern beaches and berala , all contained and mopped up. It appears SA, WA chookland and Tas have no confidence in their abilities to trace and control this virus whilst allowing people to go and live an almost normal life. SA. WA. QLD and HAs have locked out all of Vic even though most of regional Vic haven’t had a case for ages. Wacko premiers at their worst.
We have a booking on spirit of Tasmanian hoping to make our way to WA from Tasmania in early March. We have had conflicting advice on wether we can travel through Victoria to another state with minimal stops on a transit permit. Their web site tells you they have them but we can’t find the form. Could the powers that set the rules please make it clear what is expected Of Travellers of getting off the spirit in Victoria. Any advice from someone who has been in this situation would be appreciated.
I’m interested to find out how the lockdown affects people in a motorhome/caravan. Does it mean you are only allowed to move 5kms a day? What other restrictions would apply?
We had a regional lockdown last year, here in Western Australia. We in the Southwest weren’t allowed to go to Perth without a permit Essential services were exempt and those with medical exemptions. You couldn’t just travel around the state at will. There were roadblocks manned by Police. We all coped and didn’t hear of any major demonstrations.
We were locked down for 6 weeks and were only allowed to travel within our Shire. I’m suggesting you hole up somewhere nice and wait it out.
Good sensible advice Rob Jones, and I agree West Aussies appear to have handled the necessary restrictions in an excellent manner.
“15 cases and the world stops” ….mmm, I wonder if Kevin really grasps what’s happening in “the world” …have your opinion, express your opinion, by all means, but my opinion is that you are very very wrong…we are the “luck country”…lucky that we have leaders willing to make the hard decisions, its not easy, you can never please everyone, its a huge task doing contact tracing, and all the while the virus can spread…lets hope its contained. If that doesn’t worry you I’m sure you can get cheap flights to New York or England or almost any other place…and see how you go with what Sarbi thinks is the “flu” .
I just thank my lucky stars I live in Australia, and, so far, the community spread of Covid is controlled here…support our leaders in the hard decisions made for the benefit of all our health.
Very well put B. I for one will be more than happy to contribute $5 to assist each of those that choose New York, England etc as a better option of life style. I am happy to be a beneficiary of the way our leaders are controlling the issue here in our great country..