NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has again criticised Queensland's border closure saying without a change in the rules, the issue "could go on for years".
Mr Hazzard also claimed he knows Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's border closure is a "political exercise" and not based on health advice.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard urged the Queensland Premier to rethink the border closure.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Under Queensland's road map to recovery, the state has said it will not reopen to NSW or Victoria, respectively, until the states record 28 consecutive days without a case not linked to a known cluster in the community.
However, in news which surprised the NSW government this week, these cases must be classified as such within 48 hours of being recorded.
NSW recorded 10 cases of COVID-19 to 8pm on Thursday. Five cases were in returned overseas travellers, and five were locally transmitted.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said four of those local cases were linked to the private health cluster, which now includes seven cases.
The remaining local case has been included in Friday’s numbers, however, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said all indications were it was an old case that was likely acquired when the virus was circulating in the south-west Sydney community at low levels.
“We believe that this case was associated with the Liverpool hospital cluster,” she said on Friday morning.
On Thursday, NSW recorded 12 new cases of COVID-19. Three were in return travellers, but the remaining eight were locally acquired. Five of those local cases have been linked to the Liverpool dialysis cluster.
Speaking on Today, the Health Minister repeated his comments from Thursday that the border closure is "cruel".
"It's not evidence-based ... she wants to look tough for Queensland residents," he said, adding: "If she keeps this up and we don't have a vaccine ... this could go on for years. This is a silly game you shouldn't be playing. She's playing with people's lives."
Mr Hazzard said he understood the need to be cautious, but "based on criteria she's plucked from nowhere", Ms Palaszczuk's state could still be closed to parts of the country in five years time.
Speaking on RN Breakfast later in the morning, Mr Hazzard said the health of Queenslanders was not the reason for the closure.
"The reason is she is in an election phase, and she is playing games with the Queensland community," he said.
Asked by host Hamish McDonald how he knew that, Mr Hazzard said: "I have the evidence but I'm not going to share that."
"If it were that it was based on sound medical advice, of course we would accept it," he said.
The Health Minister said the timing of Queensland's possible border reopening of November 1 – the day after the Queensland state election – provided further evidence the closure was political.
"I would just remind her that many families who live in NSW have Queensland origins and have Queensland family members," Mr Hazzard said.
It comes as workers on a floor of a northern Sydney office building were directed to self-isolate, after a co-worker tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday evening.
A later identified coronavirus case worked at the Datacom contact centre at North Ryde while infectious, chief executive Greg Davidson confirmed.
"We have taken further precautionary measures to close the entire floor where the person was working until further notice and have sent all our people home to self-isolate and get tested," he said.
Mr Davidson said most of the IT services company's Sydney employees had been working from home, but some roles required staff to work in the office.
Anyone directed to self-isolate was doing so on full pay, he added.
Mary Ward is a reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Rachel Clun is a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2020-10-08 23:30:00Z
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