Australian state border restrictions

[exceladdict]

Although, widely held view in the west. (I tend to think, in the beginning, WA stumbled into the 0 covid position, rather than aimed to get there)

And there's quite a 'don't open the borders' movement brewing in social media.

Fortunately it's not brewing in circles I frequent. I do think it's reasonable that people are feeling concerned about having covid in the community for the first time, but I would like to think most people don't think keeping the border closed forever is either realistic or desirable.

I tend to agree there was an element of luck both in getting to zero and maintaining it through the (admittedly few) breaches over the last 18 months.

I dont think youll have long to wait.....there will be something this afternoon....

Are you referring to these two? It appears to me unclear if they were infectious while on the flight and/or if they supplied a negative test prior to travelling. Not sure what the rules were for QLD on the 19th.

 

[Must...Fly!]

South Australia have come out and said the 72 hour pre test will be the next one out the door, perhaps sooner than we think because of the ‘pressure it’s putting on other states’.

Sounds like NSW and VIC have made some phone calls

Fantastic, so make it happen Nicola!

I might even go for a weekend if they can that...

Post automatically merged: Dec 22, 2021

It wasn’t. Not even close.

No but at the time there was spare capacity to be leaned upon in other states. Not so now.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I believe I read (and open to correction) that Sunday was a record day for tests, including at peak delta.

Possibly. Monday reported 272k tests across Australia.

There were three higher days - 17/9/21 with 331k test, 23/8/21 with 392k tests, and 22/8/21 with 273k tests.

23/8 had unprocessed backlog tests of about 140k in NSW. 22/8 has unprocessed backlog tests of about 60k in NSW.

17/9 had some reporting anomaly in NSW - 155k tests officially reported but the total tests coughulative figure since "day 1" in NSW took a massive 247k jump.

In any case, Australia has been testing over 250k for 6 consecutive days (reported 16/12-21/12), which in itself appears to be breaking new highs.

 

[drron]

Unless they take the tassie approach and make whole flights close contacts, then it matters not where you sit.

Already posted that this was only 1 flight and it was because subsequent to it's arrival into LST another passenger and a crew member tested positive I believe on day 5. No other flight has been affected like this so not a Tassie protocol to quarantine whole flights.

 

[justinbrett]

I’m now at the 48 hour mark post day 5 test in QLD and still no result.

Makes me angry that they refuse to budge on the 72 hour test requirement from interstate arrivals when it looks like even they can’t meet that benchmark.

 

[Lynda2475]

Already posted that this was only 1 flight and it was because subsequent to it's arrival into LST another passenger and a crew member tested positive I believe on day 5. No other flight has been affected like this so not a Tassie protocol to quarantine whole flights.

Still unacceptable that 2 people test positive and so everyone in iso for 14 days despite not sitting near the positive and testing negative.

Passengers are fully vaxed and masked, should be iso until negative test i.e 1 day not 14. Close contacts were not defined properly. So i stand by my comment, Tassie cant be trusted to not do this again.

 

[HS-TQE]

Queensland was doing that for a day or two before they moved to the 5 rows as 'close' and the rest of the rows as 'casual'

On the other hand ZL has now joined the party, flights to/from OOL are now on the Qld contact tracing list.

 

[Lynda2475]

IMO 5 rows is still overkill, casual contact at best. Time to stop this nonsense, trust the vaccines.

 

[jakeseven7]

Scomo has come out and told the states requiring test before arrival to drop the requirement or set up their own infrastructure to facilitate their requirements… so what would that mean?

SA, QLD etc pays for a standalone facility in every state? Or upgrades on arrival tests? I doubt that will happen…

 

[jakeseven7]

IMO 5 rows is still overkill, casual contact at best. Time to stop this nonsense, trust the vaccines.

Agree. Test and release. Max.

 

[Pushka]

Scomo has come out and fold the states requiring test before arrival to drop the requirement or set up their own infrastructure to facilitate their requirements… so what would that mean? SA, QLD etc pays for a standalone facility in every state? Or upgrades on arrival tests? I doubt that will happen…

Prof Spurrier has already flagged that SA may drop this requirement as they are aware of this impact on other states. She was on the radio this morning and all credit to her. Now that SA is feeling covid like the Eastern States, it seems to me that she is making a lot of sense with what she is now saying. When asked if SA opened the borders too early she simply stated that Covid was always going to find us. They needed to focus on high risk settings now, that low risk close contacts may have no contact from SA Health but people had to take responsibility and monitor symptoms.

 

[openseat]

Sounds like NSW and VIC have made some phone calls

I think the phone call they need to make is to Anna, though she'll deflect as usual, then pivot.

 

[jb747]

I think the phone call they need to make is to Anna, though she'll deflect as usual, then pivot.

If NSW and Vic refuse to do tests for people on holidays to Qld, it would hit Anna in her tourism pocket. It's madness that people who actually need the tests because of contact, can't get it in a reasonable time frame because of holiday test requirements, imposed by another state.

 

[drron]

Still unacceptable that 2 people test positive and so everyone in iso for 14 days despite not sitting near the positive and testing negative.

Passengers are fully vaxed and masked, should be iso until negative test i.e 1 day not 14. Close contacts were not defined properly. So i stand by my comment, Tassie cant be trusted to not do this again.

Though the crew member would have been closer than 2 rows of everyone on the plane when walking up and down the aisle. So really no change in the policy. But I agree with everyone masked and HEPA installed basically this is overkill.
On the other hand these last 2 tested positive 4-5 days after the flight so quite possibly got it on the flight. Tassie is always going to go with what they perceive is the safest option. The CHO has come out saying he expects the mask mandate to continue throughout 2022.

 

[HS-TQE]

I think the phone call they need to make is to Anna, though she'll deflect as usual, then pivot.

Considering the Qld CHO is taking a different approach from his predecessor, chances of Qld dropping the PCR requirement would be 50/50 at best.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

If NSW and Vic refuse to do tests for people on holidays to Qld, it would hit Anna in her tourism pocket. It's madness that people who actually need the tests because of contact, can't get it in a reasonable time frame because of holiday test requirements, imposed by another state.

In NSW, they have effectively switched off QR check in, so any contact tracing would be off memory/receipts but more likely just word of mouth through one's social contact (bugger all for strangers)

 

[exceladdict]

Wouldn't be surprised if the commonwealth/nsw/vic simply stop funding tests for outbound travel purposes.

 

[antycbr]

Wouldn't be surprised if the commonwealth/nsw/vic simply stop funding tests for outbound travel purposes.

Creates issues for the testing staff who have to ask why a person is getting tested. People will just lie.

 

[RooFlyer]

Wouldn't be surprised if the commonwealth/nsw/vic simply stop funding tests for outbound travel purposes.

I guess that would massively increase the incidence of sniffles / headache sore throat?

 

[exceladdict]

I guess that would massively increase the incidence of sniffles / headache sore throat?

Creates issues for the testing staff who have to ask why a person is getting tested. People will just lie.

I think you're both right, though you probably have to declare somewhere on your border crossing or flight check in that you haven't had any symptoms in the past XYZ days/hours. Though people these days are getting pretty good at doublespeak