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16 November, 2021

Queensland’s border rules relaxed, as vax target hit earlier than planned

Blue waves rolling on Surfers Paradise beach, QLD, Australia

Queensland has eased some border restrictions after reaching a vaccination milestone days ahead of deadline, thanks partly to a strong turnout at school pop-up clinics.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced yesterday that 70 per cent of the state’s population aged 16 and over were now fully vaccinated.

“Congratulations and thank you, Queensland,” the Premier said.

“We’ve now clicked over the 70 per cent double-dose mark, well ahead of the date we set ourselves. There are now more than three million Queenslanders fully vaccinated.

“This means we can relax some of our border restrictions for people travelling from hotspots.”

Palaszczuk said that people in interstate COVID-19 hotspots can now apply online to travel to Queensland and quarantine at home.

“People who have been in a hotspot in the past 14 days can now enter Queensland and home quarantine if they are fully vaccinated, are arriving by air, have had a negative COVID-19 test in the 72 hours prior to arriving and meet additional criteria,” she said.

“While our home quarantine trial was for returning Queenslanders, anyone can now apply if they believe they meet the eligibility criteria.”

Police will also be issuing emails to anyone already in the queue for a border pass to go online and reapply. Once processed, border passes will be issued.

The Queensland Premier said that while reaching the 70 per cent milestone was a good achievement, there was still a lot of people still to be vaccinated.

“Our next target is reaching the 80 per cent double-dose mark, at which we will lift even more restrictions. Let’s do this, Queensland,” Palaszczuk said.

Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Yvette D’Ath said excellent attendance at pop-up vaccination clinics at schools on the weekend helped Queensland reach the target early.

“The turnout was excellent, with more than 9,400 people getting their jabs at 58 schools this weekend,” she said.

“We currently have more than 65 school pop-up clinics lined up for this weekend, with more to add to the list this week, and I expect these will have a significant impact on our vaccination rates once again.

“We particularly want to reach people who are yet to receive their first vaccination. We know there are now more than 820,000 eligible Queenslanders aged 12 and over who are completely unprotected.

“Anyone aged 12 years and over can get vaccinated – and they need to before the border opens and restrictions come in for unvaccinated people. This should be their top priority.”

Queensland plans to remove border restrictions and quarantine requirements for fully-vaccinated people once the state reaches the 90 per cent double-dose mark.

Featured image source: iStock/zstockphotos

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Annastacia Palaszczuk Border restrictions border rules queensland vaccination milestone vaccination rate vaccination target