COVID update - hard borders remain for some

By Simon Ruppert

Jan 12, 2021

Victorians will be able to travel home from regional NSW, but hard borders remain for travellers from Brisbane and Greater Sydney.

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This comes as Premier Daniel Andrews announced a new “traffic light system” today to streamline warnings and restrictions for all interstate travellers.

From 6 pm Monday, January 11, people must apply for a permit to enter Victoria from anywhere in Australia, except border communities in NSW where residents will require proof of their home address.

Interstate locations are to be classified as red, yellow or green, subject to the virus risk in each area.

People from a red zone will be unable to enter Victoria without an exception, permitted worker permit or exemption.

Those travelling from a designated orange zone must apply for a permit to enter Victoria, and need to be tested for COVID-19 and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Anyone coming from a green zone must also apply for a permit to enter Victoria, but do not need to be tested or isolate.

People from orange and green zones cannot apply for a permit if they have COVID-19 symptoms or have visited a red zone.

From 5.59 pm Monday, regional NSW will move out of the red zone to become orange, meaning people who want to travel home from this area will be able to do so if they have a permit.

Greater Sydney, however, will remain red, as will Brisbane.

“We will update (Greater Sydney’s status) daily,” Mr Andrews said.

“In terms of Brisbane, while the restrictions that have been imposed for greater Brisbane come off at 6 pm tonight, the public health team is not 100 per cent confident we can have people from Brisbane returned to Victoria.

“We will again monitor that each day, there are still many close contacts that have not been tested, it's a relatively new outbreak.

“We are very pleased for our friends in Queensland with such positive results over the weekend, many tests and no additional cases.

“But the public health team are not yet . . . comfortable to have people from the greater Brisbane area coming back to Melbourne or travelling to Melbourne regardless of where they might live.”

With zero active cases in regional NSW, Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton felt the region was well-placed to become an orange zone.

“In terms of Greater Sydney again the trend is positive, but there are ongoing cases, there are ongoing new exposure sites, ongoing transmission,” Prof Sutton said.

“The risk is still there and so the designation of it as a red zone is appropriate in my view for now.”

Mr Andrews flagged there would be significant repercussions for people who did not abide by the new system.

“There are substantial penalties of $5000 if you turn up here without a permit or if you turn up here and you should not be here, if you have not bothered to apply for one or if you were rejected and turn up - then you face that $5000 fine,” he said.

Shepparton News editor Tyla Harrington is just one north-east resident waiting anxiously to return home.

She and her parents travelled to Greater Brisbane on Wednesday, January 6, to visit her brother and his family.

But while they were booked to fly back to Victoria on Sunday, their plans were thrown into chaos when the border abruptly shut and Brisbane was thrust into a three-day lockdown after a Brisbane hotel quarantine cleaner tested positive to the highly infectious UK virus strain.

“When we discovered Greater Brisbane would be locked down, it was a bit disappointing, to be honest – 2021 was supposed to be a new year,” Ms Harrington said.

“But there are plenty of people worse off than us, and there could be worse places to quarantine than Brisbane.”

The Premier thanked Victorians who were patiently waiting for public health advice to allow them to return home.

“We know this is deeply inconvenient and challenging time for you, but there is no alternative but to follow the best public health advice,” he said.

Victoria recorded zero locally acquired cases for the fifth day in a row on Monday, with only one case detected in hotel quarantine.

This brought the state’s total number of active cases to 40, after 18,660 tests were completed on Sunday.

The Department of Health and Human Services also confirmed Monday a child had tested positive to COVID-19 following a rapid point of care test on arrival in Israel after spending time in Victoria.

The Australian child, who arrived in Israel on January 9, attended an early learning centre in Armadale on January 7.

But Prof Sutton said this case was not of concern and could end up being a false positive.

“Rapid point of care tests have variable sensitivity and specificity, it's my suspicion this is not going to end up being a confirmed positive test,” he said.

“That said the childcare centre is closed, and all individuals are being tested and will need to return a negative result as well.”

● People can apply for permits at this link.