Queensland may delay opening its border with NSW if health officials haven’t found the source of three mystery COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Sydney on Tuesday.

October 9, 2020

Queensland’s chief health officer will be eagerly watching to see if NSW has found the source of three mystery COVID-19 cases in Sydney.

If they haven’t, Dr Jeannette Young may consider resetting the 28-day clock for the reopening of the border between the two states.

Under nationally agreed guidelines, NSW health officials had 48 hours to link the cases to a known cluster for the clock to keep ticking.

The three new community transmission cases emerged in western and southwestern Sydney after 8pm on Tuesday.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Thursday she remained on “high alert” over the cases and was “not ruling out anything” when asked about the tentative plan to reopen the border on November 1.

“We are going to be looking at those cases. I’m looking forward to seeing what the premier of NSW has to say,” she said while campaigning in Townsville.

“We hope that NSW gets on top of those cases, very very quickly.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Queensland government seemed to be “making up rules as they go along” over the 48-hour deadline concept.

The border between the two states has been closed since August 8, with Queensland repeatedly saying NSW must reach 28 days without unlinked community transmission before it will be fully reopened.

Ms Palaszczuk said decisions over the border would be made towards the end of the month following Dr Young’s advice.

NSW on Thursday said it now had eight new locally acquired virus cases, including the three unlinked cases, ending the state’s run of 12 consecutive days without community transmission.

Queensland recorded no new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to Thursday morning.

There are just four active cases in the state and 6729 virus tests were completed.