13 August 2021

Dear colleagues,

Good news Friday! Queensland has recorded eight new cases of COVID-19 today, seven of them linked to the Indooroopilly State High School Delta outbreak and all detected in home quarantine, one on day 12 of isolation. The other case was acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

Over the past 72 hours we have done a significant amount of work to prepare for the end of quarantine last night and today for the first groups in the Indooroopilly cluster.

Border updates

New: From 1am tomorrow the ACT will be a declared hotspot and Queensland’s border will close to this territory. Anyone who arrived in Queensland on or after 9 August from the ACT must quarantine at home for 14 days.

If this applies to you, you will need to be tested for COVID-19 on days one, five and 12 after arrival from ACT. Anyone who arrives after 1am tomorrow morning must go into hotel quarantine for 14 days. More information is available on the Queensland Health website.

New: From 12 pm yesterday, South Australia is no longer a declared hotspot.

Other border restrictions:

• The Queensland border is now open to South Australia, but for flights only due to the risk of driving through NSW.
• Restrictions regarding Victoria will remain in place after news of the state’s extended lockdown period.
• Queenslanders living in or near the border with NSW are strongly encouraged to avoid any travel south of the border (excluding essential workers) due to the lockdown.

Border restrictions direction (no.33)

The Direction has been updated so that:

• You must complete a Queensland entry pass to enter Queensland from anywhere in Australia or New Zealand, including returning Queensland residents.
• You must complete the Queensland entry pass in the 3 days before you travel to Queensland. It takes a few minutes to complete and your declaration will be sent to your email.
• You will be asked where you have been in the past 14 days. You must list all states and territories you have visited, even if your visit was brief or you travelled through an area.
• If conditions change or you need to update your travel details, you’ll need to complete a new declaration with updated details before you enter Queensland.

Interstate places of concern direction (Stay at home in Qld)

The Direction has been updated so that:

• Anyone in Queensland who has been in the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Walgett Shire, Bourke Shire, Brewarrina Shire, Ballina Shire, Byron Shire, City of Lismore or Richmond Valley Council Local Government Areas in the last 14 days, or since the identified start date, (whichever is later) must follow the New South Wales stay at home restrictions. You must follow these restrictions until New South Wales lifts their restrictions or 14 days have passed since they left the area (whichever is shorter).

Helpful links

• Qld Health contact tracing list
• Register for your vaccine
• Qld Health general COVID-19 page

Metro North remains on Tier 1 in our COVID response plan and moderate risk PPE, with fever clinic staff and emergency department triage staff wearing P2/N95 masks.

Staff are reminded to get tested and isolate if experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, fatigue, loss of smell and/ or taste, diarrhoea, vomiting or nausea.

Thank you to those working in our fever clinics and vaccination hubs, your non-stop work is helping all of us make our way through this outbreak!

Regards,

Louise O’Riordan 
Metro North Incident Controller

Metro North HHS – overview of cases*

*As at 13/08/2021 at 1000
**Metro North Health has four recorded deaths (one person a return traveller into NSW, who passed away in NSW)
*** These numbers reflect the cases being managed by Metro North Health.