Sydney-based grey nomads who had been looking forward to spending the rest of the winter in the Northern Territory might now be having a re-think.
The NT Government has just announced that, from Friday, arrivals to the Territory from Sydney, or anyone who has been in Sydney in the previous 14 days, will be directed into mandatory supervised quarantine at the Howard Springs quarantine facility and charged $2,500.
The decision follows the Northern Territory Government last week declaring all of Victoria a coronavirus hotspot for the purposes of travel to the NT.
The Territory’s borders will reopen to the rest of the country in two days’ time.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner told the ABC the decision follows advice from his Chief Health Officer as cases in Sydney rise.
“This situation in Sydney has the potential to get worse before it gets better, and we need to assume that it will get worse,” Mr Gunner said. “To open our borders to Sydney right now, when we don’t know the full extent of this cluster, would be a roll of the dice.”
The Sydney hotspot declarations will be reviewed in two weeks, although Mr Gunner said the declaration will remain in place indefinitely.
“I don’t anticipate this declaration being in place for as long as Victoria’s, but I will not make any promises about a date,” he said. “This will stay in place for as long as we need it to, until we are confident it is under control.”
Yesterday, Queensland announced it was closing its border to two Sydney hotspots of Liverpool and Campbelltown, and South Australia shelved plans to open its borders to NSW and the ACT from July 20.
I did not know that Melbourne was the whole of Victoria, you must have all failed in your map reading ability, funny that you know that Sydney is not the whole of NSW. You are a funny lot
Does this mean if we are from Sydney but have been in Queensland for more than 14 days will we be denied entry?