NSW, Victoria and Queensland restrict travel from NZ in face of Auckland outbreak rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New Zealand arrivals to Queensland will have to undergo quarantine from 6pm tonight due to increased transmission across the Tasman.
The green flights allowing for unrestricted travel will cease and New Zealand will be removed as a safe travel country, Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young announced.
There were no new community cases in New Zealand on Wednesday, but the country has 11 active cases linked to a cluster in Auckland.
QLD Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young (pictured) announced QLD is closing borders to NZ Unfortunately, over the past few days New Zealand has been recording some new positive cases, which is why we are closing the border from 6pm, Ms Young said.
Australia Begins CCP Virus Vaccine Rollout
Australia began rolling out vaccinations against the CCP virus on Monday, after a soft launch on Sunday, saw some frontline workers and the elderly, along with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, receive the Pfizer jab one day ahead of schedule.
Aged care resident Jane Malysiak, 84, from Marayong in New South Wales (NSW), was the first person in Australia to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday.
Morrison said it was a “landmark day” for Australia amid the pandemic.
“We have always made our own Australian way through this pandemic and have done so with considerable success compared with so many other countries around the world,” he said. “This vaccination program launches us down our path out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.”
CHO cancels trip to see newborn grandson Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young’s warning against travelling to Greater Melbourne has meant she’s had to postpone her own visit to see her grandson.
Health by Janelle Miles
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Subscriber only Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has had to cancel a trip to Melbourne next week to visit her first grandchild because of the latest COVID-19 case in Victoria. Dr Young has urged Queenslanders to reconsider any travel to Greater Melbourne after a 26-year-old hotel quarantine worker at the Grand Hyatt hotel tested positive. I do apologise to everyone out there who had plans to go down to Melbourne, could they please put them all on hold if at all possible, Dr Young said.
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Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said while the recent positive test results were not an immediate cause for concern, they should not be ignored.
“People shouldn’t be alarmed that there is positive sewage testing, they should just understand that it could be old cases but it could also be a new case,” Dr Young said.
“So just come forward and get tested.”
Queensland Health is actively testing wastewater samples for signs of the virus as part of its pandemic measures, with the testing acting as an early warning system.
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CSIRO senior researcher Warish Ahmed was among the scientists who developed the current wastewater testing procedures used by Queensland Health.