Page 570 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 March 2021
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Anyone who is currently in the ACT and has been in greater Brisbane on or after 15 March must enter quarantine until at least 6 pm ACT time 1 April, or until 14 days have passed since they were last in Brisbane, get tested for COVID-19 and complete an online declaration form. ACT residents wishing to return home from greater Brisbane are required to complete an online declaration within 24 hours before travelling, get tested and quarantine upon their return until at least 6 pm on 1 April.
Non-ACT residents wishing to travel to the ACT from greater Brisbane are not permitted to do so at this time unless they have an approved exemption from ACT Health. For clarity, those who are simply transiting through the ACT to get to a home location in New South Wales can do so under these arrangements.
Anyone who is currently in the ACT and was in greater Brisbane between 11 and 14 March 2021 is required to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative test result. This does not include people who have transited through Brisbane Airport but have not actually spent time in the greater Brisbane area during the relevant time. We are closely monitoring the situation in Queensland and the Chief Health Officer will continue to provide the government with the latest public health advice as more information becomes available.
On 12 February Victoria entered a five-day lockdown in response to the outbreak linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport cluster. The ACT responded quickly to the situation and implemented a public health direction restricting travel to the ACT from Victoria from 11.59 pm on 12 February. ACT residents who needed to return home during the lockdown period were required to notify ACT Health of their travel and enter self-quarantine immediately upon their arrival in the ACT. Non-ACT residents intending to travel to the ACT after the 11.59 pm deadline were not permitted to do so without an exemption. If travel was required for extraordinary circumstances, they were required to seek an exemption from ACT Health prior to their travel.
ACT Health closely monitored the situation in Victoria over the five-day period, with exposure sites updated daily in response to advice received by the Victorian government. By the end of the lockdown, Victoria had recorded zero new locally acquired cases outside of quarantine. As a result, travel restrictions were eased, with effect from 17 February 2021, to permit travel to the ACT unless individuals had been in a tier 1 exposure site.
Locally, I am pleased to report that the ACT continues to do an excellent job in suppressing COVID-19 and there continues to be no evidence of community transmission in the territory. As I mentioned, the cooperation of the community continues to be critical to our continued success. Since my last update to the Assembly, the ACT has recorded five positive cases of COVID-19 in hotel quarantine in individuals who arrived on the government-facilitated flight from Singapore on 1 March 2021. I am pleased to report that these cases have all now recovered. That means a total of 120 cases have recovered from COVID-19 in the ACT. Sadly, of course, there were three deaths early in the pandemic, with the total number of cases in the ACT at 123.
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