Queensland could soften its hard border to New South Wales sooner than expected, with pressure mounting for the state to relax the rules.
Queensland could reopen to New South Wales sooner, as it's revealed the sunshine state's chief health officer is considering softening the requirements to reopen the border.
Dr Jeannette Young has previously been vocal about wanting to see 28 days straight of no community transmission in NSW before reopening the borders, something NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has repeatedly called a "tall order".
Every time a new case with no known source is recorded in NSW, the clock resets to zero, which happened on Tuesday. The last time NSW recorded 14 days of no community transmission was in mid-June.
But the Tourism Queensland chief executive officer has spoken to Young and asked if she would consider slashing that to 14 days, something she is reportedly considering, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Daniel Gschwind said he was hoping it would be urgently changed.
"We believe such a high bar is going to be very hard to achieve. It is almost aiming for elimination, which appears to be a far-off objective," he told the Herald.
Young said she was still concerned by the number of cases in NSW with unknown causes of transmission.
"We've all done so well to protect Queensland and we can't let our hard work and sacrifices go to waste by rushing a critical decision."
Changing the requirement from 28 days to 14 days would need to be agreed to by chief health officers in other states, and could be discussed when the Palaszczuk Government reviews border restrictions at the end of September.
It comes as pressure mounts on states with closed borders after South Australia reopened its to the ACT, with no quarantine now necessary for those flying straight from Canberra.
Those driving through or coming from NSW will still need to quarantine for two weeks.
The ACT is still considered a hotspot in Queensland, despite the fact there are zero active cases and no community transmission has been reported in months.
The push to soften the border restrictions comes as the Australian reports the Palaszczuk Government had spent more than $500,000 on coronavirus polling in the past few months, to gauge voter sentiment about the state's restrictions.
Queensland first shut its borders on March 26, and reopened to all but Victoria on July 10. On August 8, the door slammed on NSW and the ACT.
