The Gold Coast borders are coming down earlier than planned, in order to free up vital police resources as Queensland approaches the peak of the Omicron variant.
From 1.00 am on Saturday January 15 all the barricades will come down and border passes won’t be necessary any longer.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has thanked the police for their assistance on the border over the last several months.
“The borders will be coming down, from 1am (on Saturday), anyone coming domestically across into Queensland, either by our road or by air, they do not have to show that they have had their border pass.
“They don’t have to show that they have had a rapid antigen test but this is the time and the time is now right as we head towards hitting that 90% next week,” Premier Palaszczuk said.
However, the international travel arrangements remain in place for at least a little while longer.
“In terms of international travel, we will wait until that is formally declared on 90% but we need to take this step today and I think every Queensland ones to thank the men and women, especially a police service,” Premier Palaszczuk said.
While we’re letting in unvaccinated people into the state, the Queensland Health Minister says other restrictions such as entry to hospitality venues must still remain in place.
“We should assume that anyone travelling around Australia domestically could have the virus and so it is a lot less important to worry about where people are coming from around Australia and much more importantly, about where they are going.
“And that is why our restrictions around who can access certain venues and events remain because we are still wanting to make sure that only fully vaccinated people are entering those values and those events that are more likely to see faster transmission happening and where those people have travelled from around Australia,” Minister Yvette D’Ath said.
Police report processing 3.3 million online border pass declarations.
Almost 36,000 cars were turned around at the road borders, while some 20,000 people were directed into quarantine from the road borders.
At the airports, police met almost 30,000 flights on arrival, checking 1.8 million passengers.
4,452 people were refused entry at the domestic airports.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll is pleased with today’s announcement and thanked the community for their patience.
“I welcome this announcement today, since the establishment of the first border checkpoint in March 2020, this has been a significant operation for the Queensland Police service.
“To protect the community emotionally from the elimination of COVID-19 but more recently in slowing the spread.
“A sincere thank you to the community for their compliance and their patients in working with us over this time to ensure we have the proper safeguards in place to keep our communities safe,” Commissioner Carroll said.
It was also Queensland’s deadliest day since the beginning of the pandemic, with six people passing away over the last 24 hours.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says this is the largest number of people that Queenslanders have lost during the pandemic.
“Can I please express my deepest sympathies to the families of the people who have passed away.
“This will be very difficult time for families at the moment.
“Unfortunately we are in a pandemic but it is a very sad day for of the pandemic,” Premier Palaszczuk said.
Chief Health Officer Doctor John Gerrard says ‘all have a difficult underlying medical conditions’.
“Three of them were in residential aged care. Five them were double vaccinated, one was unvaccinated and none had received a booster.
“Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones today,” Doctor Gerrard said at Thursday’s update.
