Queensland will extend its border zone with NSW from October 1 to include Ballina, Casino and other areas along the length of the border. Please share this info using the attached graphic and respond to any enquiries using the below information & Q&A.
Our strong borders have kept Queenslanders safe and allowed us to keep our economy going, businesses open and people working.
Thanks to our health response and falling numbers of the virus, we can now take a gradual approach to easing these restrictions.
So many residents of Northern NSW get their services from Queensland and this will allow them to return to supporting Queensland businesses.
Queenslanders have done a remarkable job responding to recent clusters south of Brisbane and in Ipswich.
Queenslanders have heeded the advice, got tested in large numbers, stayed home when sick and practiced social distancing.
That’s meant we’ve been able to limit the spread of these COVID clusters and we’re on track to easing local restrictions soon.
The border zone expansion is part of Queensland Health’s end-of-month assessment of Covid-19 protection measures – and it means border residents in these new areas can cross the border for any purpose.
A range of factors have been taken into consideration by Dr Young in making this deciison, including:
the lack of Covid-19 cases in the expanded NSW border zone over an extended period,
the overall drop in Covid-19 cases in NSW,
Queensland’s strong work containing its recent cluster,
the significant range and number of Queensland services and activities that people as far south as Ballina and Casino access.
These factors, taken together, demonstrate that the risk of increasing the border zone to these new areas is minimal.
Queensland will also remove the northern boundary of the border zone entirely, meaning residents of the approved areas can now access the entire state.
The border zone is not intended to act as a quarantine zone for the two states, and is only there to enable the movement of residents within the border zone for day-to-day activities.
The announcement follows plans to further open Queensland to the Australian Capital Territory from 1am Friday 25 September 2020, pending the continuation of zero new cases.