Queensland will shut its NSW road borders after almost 200 Sydneysiders were caught trying to get into the state illegally.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has ordered people from greater Sydney into 14-day quarantine on arrival in Queensland to stop the northern beaches COVID-19 outbreak from spreading.
She says Sydneysiders have been caught trying to get into Queensland without quarantining, so a hard NSW border will be reinstated from 6am on Tuesday.
"There will be a hard border closure that will be going in place," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.
"People will start to seeing barricades going up again this afternoon and it will be back to the strong border measures that we have seen in Queensland that have kept Queenslanders safe."
Regional NSW residents outside of the hotspots will still be allowed to visit Queensland, but the border will be shut to anyone from Greater Sydney until January 8.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski is concerned about the road borders with 81 people turned back and 112 people ordered into hotel quarantine since Friday.
He said it was concerning that a number of those 193 people were either displaying incorrect border passes or no pass at all.
Commissioner Gollschewski said many had made it "very clear" that they were trying to get into Queensland to visit family for Christmas.
"We've tried to do a system where it relies on the integrity and honesty of the community coming in and some people are not doing the right thing," he said.
"So therefore we have to go back to that more hard closure."
Queenslanders who have been in Sydney since December 10 have been given until 1am on Tuesday to get home, but they will need to be tested for COVID-19 and go into self-isolation on arrival.
Greater Sydney residents who were already in Queensland before the quarantine cut-off have been ordered to self-isolate and get tested as well.
Commissioner Gollschewski said people had already been caught breaching self-isolation orders inside Queensland, doing things like taking walks on the beach.
"People that are in home quarantine need to understand we will check them, they will be checked," he added.
He said Queensland police had received 237,500 applications for border declaration passes from NSW residents and ordered 500 people in quarantine since Friday.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said that unlike other coronavirus outbreaks all the cases in Sydney were linked, which meant the hard border would not be in place indefinitely.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath was also concerned about venues maintaining proper electronic sign-in systems after paper-based systems hindered contact tracing efforts after a Sydney woman with COVID-19 visited the state last week.
She said all venues would be expected to have a QR-code sign-in system from Wednesday and those that don't will face penalties.
Ms D'Ath also sent a stern warning to people considering entering false details in online sign-in forms, and foreshadowed penalties for those caught doing so.
"This is not a joke, we are trying to save lives here," she added.
Australian Associated Press
