BOWMAN MP Andrew Laming has doubled down on calls for people to remain calm in the face of new coronavirus cases as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk moves to ban travellers from greater Sydney.
Mr Laming told the Redland City Bulletin in May that an outbreak could be managed using contact-tracing and has renewed calls for calm after three people tested positive to the virus at nearby Logan today.
"Back in May, I described exactly what has transpired, a single business or school affected, and that the response would require tracing to an individual employee or student," he said.
"Because Queensland Health has identified what we call an index case, saturation contact tracing aims to get on top of those COVID contacts before the tracks go cold."
Ms Palaszczuk announced today that people travelling from greater Sydney would be locked out of Queensland from Saturday morning, with the area to be added to the list of interstate COVID hotspots.
It comes after two 19-year-old women tested positive to coronavirus after travelling together from Melbourne to Brisbane via Sydney.
Contact tracing is underway to identify what areas the women visited while infected.
Capalaba MP Don Brown said the government would continue listening to health advice and act accordingly.
He was furious after hearing the circumstances in which the two women became infected.
"What today's two cases show is that we need the public to be on-board with these directions," he said.
"Yes there are hefty fines, yes there is jail time, but the greater risk to the general public and what you would have to live with because of your actions should be in the thoughts of anyone who thinks they are going to lie on a declaration.
"It is always hard to keep a handle on this. We always need to be vigilant.
"From one day to the next things can change and it only takes a couple of idiots to change the outcome for the whole state."
Mr Laming said red-zoning Sydney was a wise move but he hoped Queensland would not close its borders completely.
"These public health directives play an important role because we can shut down opportunities for the virus to travel, but still keep borders open for other areas," he said.
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