Queensland will shut its borders to travellers from Greater Melbourne after Victoria went into a five-day coronavirus lockdown.
A COVID-19 outbreak connected to the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport has grown to 13 cases, with Premier Daniel Andrews ordering the entire state into a five-day hard lockdown on Friday.
Queensland has declared Greater Melbourne a hotspot and any travellers who have been there will be ordered into hotel quarantine from 1am on Saturday.
Acting Health Minister Steven Miles says a 14-day border closure will give contact tracers time to track 1500 people in Queensland linked to the Melbourne outbreak.
"This hotspot declaration will allow us to get on top of our contact tracing over that five-day period and monitor the situation there," he said.
"It will allow us to protect Queenslanders and to support our public health officers doing that contract-tracing work, not adding to their workload while they are racing to get to those contacts.
"I'm sure all Queenslanders wish our friends and our family and all Victorians all the best through this lockdown.
"We were there not that long ago, we were there for our friends in Victoria last year during their very, very long lockdown."
Deputy Chief Health Officer Sonya Bennett said while there was a virus case at Melbourne Airport, the site is no longer a risk so transit passengers will still be allowed to enter Queensland.
She warned that in addition to the 1500 people, there could also be more people in the state who have been to the virus exposure sites in Melbourne.
Dr Bennett called for anyone who has recently visited the Victorian capital since February 5 to self-isolate and get tested for COVID-19.
"We don't know where people have been and I think that's why closing the borders gives us an added assurance, whilst Victoria manages to get the outbreak under control," she said.
All travellers entering Queensland will need to make a formal declaration to confirm they haven't been in Melbourne.
Police will be meeting passengers on all flights coming into Queensland and randomly checking cars entering the state.
Anyone caught with a false declaration faces a $4000 fine and potentially being ordered into quarantine.
Dr Miles said after three lockdowns - in Brisbane, Perth and now Melbourne - involving the UK strain of the virus getting out of hotel quarantine it was time to reconsider a proposal for a national network of quarantine facilities.
He said all three outbreaks were caused by the virus spreading in hotel hallways, which were not designed for containing infectious diseases.
Dr Miles said the risk of transmission could be greatly reduced if the federal government and the states set up purpose-built quarantine facilities.
"Victoria probably wouldn't be going into this kind of lockdown if there was dedicated national quarantine facilities," he said.
Australian Associated Press
