Excursions for nursing home residents and dancing by groups of up to 40 people will be allowed when Queensland eases health restrictions on Friday afternoon.

October 16, 2020

Larger groups of Queenslanders will be able to hit the dancefloor at weddings after the state clocked up 36 days without COVID-19 community transmission.

Aged care facility residents will also be allowed to go on excursions as the state’s health restrictions are further eased from 4pm on Friday.

“This is a great outcome. Effective from this afternoon, as a reward for Queenslanders, we will be able to, young people at formals, dance again,” Deputy Premier Steven Miles told reporters.

“Up to 40 people at a time will be able to dance at weddings and residents at aged care facilities and nursing homes will again be able to go on excursions to the beach, to play bingo.”

The move to ease health restrictions was not planned to happen until November 1 on the Queensland recovery roadmap.

It permits the capacity at gatherings at homes and in public places to be increased from a maximum of 30 to 40 people.

Year 12 students will also be able to dance at end-of-the-year events and up to 40 people can dance at weddings with a COVID-safe plan.

Two new cases were diagnosed in Queensland overnight. Four remain active.

One of the cases is a miner who returned from Africa and Papua New Guinea and the other is a traveller who recently returned from the USA.

Both are in hotel quarantine in Cairns and on the Gold Coast.

Health officials completed 4738 tests in the 24 hours to Friday morning. They remain watchful of the situation in NSW and Victoria ahead of the potential reopening of the border at the end of the month.

It follows Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s critical remarks to a Cairns radio station on Thursday about the Palaszczuk government’s tough border stance.

The prime minister said “health borders” should only be implemented for “health reasons and only as long as it is absolutely necessary”.

He also targeted Queensland’s requirement for NSW to record 28-days without community transmission before opening the border.

“You’ve got to have realistic goals,” he said.

Mr Morrison said the strict border rules were also causing tourism operators to miss out on domestic and international trade.

“I’d love to see Kiwi holidaymakers coming to Queensland … but they won’t be,” he said referring to a border bubble agreement allowing New Zealanders to visit NSW, the Northern Territory and ACT from Friday.

“The Queensland government is still insisting on two weeks’ quarantine.”

Dr Miles hit back on Friday, questioning the prime minister’s decision to cancel the National Cabinet meeting.

“We are managing a global crisis here. National Cabinet is important and has important decisions to make,” he said.

He said Mr Morrison could have used a commercial flight and joined Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s in Brisbane at a secure facility.

“I suspect it is as much about not wanting to be in NSW … Today is not a good day to be a Liberal in NSW,” he said referring to the crisis engulfing NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian after her appearance at an Independent Commissioner Against Corruption hearing.

“I know he doesn’t like to travel on commercial planes but there were commercial planes travelling from Cairns to Brisbane.”