Covid 19 coronavirus: NSW Queensland border to open but shut to Greater Sydney

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Photo / File

In Australia, Queensland will reopen its border with NSW except for the Greater Sydney region, despite mounting pressure on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to reopen the entire state.

Just a day out from the Queensland election, Palaszczuk said people in 32 local government areas (LGAs) in Greater Sydney will continue to be restricted from entering the state.

People in the rest of NSW will be able to return to Queensland for any reason from 1am on November 3, which is pushed out slightly from the original reopening date of November 1.

"That is to ensure that all the border passes that need to be renewed will be able to be renewed effectively and efficiently," Palaszczuk said.

As well as Greater Sydney, Queensland's border will also remain closed to Victoria.

Today's decision, which affects about five million in the Greater Sydney region, is based on advice from Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young.

BREAKING: Queensland will remain closed to Victoria and Greater Sydney. #covid19au pic.twitter.com/F8gs0PPIlv

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 30, 2020

Dr Young said she was concerned Sydney was continuing to experience mystery cases that could not be linked to known clusters.

"New South Wales put out an alert for six different sites across the city where they were concerned that transmission could have occurred," she said.

"So based on that new information yesterday and the information up to that point, I believe it is important that Queensland remain closed to those 32 LGAs in Sydney.

"Outside those 32 LGAs (there) have not been any cases in the previous 28 days. So that is really good news and NSW has done exceptionally well."

Dr Young said as the cases in NSW crossed local government areas, it was appropriate to restrict the entire geographic area.

"They are the risk, they are the ones moving around," she said.

"My concern was that there were four LGAs and then we had three cases and they had been to multiple LGAs. And then it becomes impossible to manage.

"So it really has to be a sensible geographical area because people do not live in LGAs — they cross out of those areas to other places and that is why you need to have a sensible geographic area."

NSW travellers will be allowed to enter Queensland if they flying from Sydney Airport, but they cannot stop in Sydney on the way to the airport.

The 32 black listed Sydney LGAs are: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, Canada Bay, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Liverpool, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Parramatta, Penrith, Randwick, Ryde, Strathfield, Sutherland Shire, Sydney, The Hills Shire, Waverley, Willoughby, Wollondilly Shire, Woollahra and Sydney Harbour (Unincorporated).

The nearby council areas of the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Wollongong are not included in the Sydney ban.