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Holiday chaos as Qld closes to Sydney

Gina RushtonAAP
VideoNew Zealand pauses travel bubble with NSW

Thousands of NSW families’ school holiday plans are in chaos with most states and New Zealand blocking travellers from much of Sydney.

Just two days before public schools break for holidays Queensland has joined Victoria and New Zealand by imposing bans on travellers from much of Sydney as NSW braces for more COVID-19 cases.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says from 1am on Thursday Queensland will close its border to people from the City of Sydney and the Woollahra, Bayside, Canada Bay, Inner West, and Randwick local government areas.

“So to keep Queenslanders safe, we will be following exactly what Victoria has announced last night,” she said on Wednesday.

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“This advice may have to be updated during the course of the day or into the evening,” she said.

“NSW is treating this seriously and we are treating it seriously.”

Other Australian states have imposed border restrictions for people from hotspot areas, with Victoria on Tuesday declaring seven Sydney local government areas “red zones”.

Earlier on Wednesday, NSW Health issued a health alert after a person infected with the virus flew from Sydney to New Zealand and back.

The alert was for passengers travelling on Qantas flight QF163 on Friday night to Wellington, and anyone who flew on Monday morning on Air New Zealand flight NZ247 from Wellington to Sydney.

Passengers on board those flights must contact NSW Health immediately, get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.

The scare comes after New Zealand health authorities closed the trans-Tasman bubble with NSW for at least 72 hours after the state recorded 10 new cases on Tuesday, lifting the so-called Bondi COVID-19 cluster to 21.

Mandatory mask rules have been extended by a week in Sydney, QR codes are set to become mandatory in all NSW shops and there is heightened anxiety Sydney could be heading for a lockdown.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian did not rule this out but said she had a “degree of confidence” because there was only one infection not linked to a known case.

“If we suddenly have a number of unlinked cases, and if we suddenly have them outside the geographic region they are concentrated in, that will obviously adjust the health advice and we will respond to that,” she said on Tuesday.

Seven of the 10 new locally acquired Sydney cases flagged on Tuesday had missed the 8pm reporting deadline on Monday and will be counted for the following 24-hour period, which will be announced on Wednesday.

They included six household contacts of previous cases who have been in isolation, and a child in Sydney’s east.

All of the new cases, except for two, were already in isolation when tested and all except one - a student at St Charles Catholic Primary School in Waverley - were linked to existing cases.

On Tuesday night, new exposure sites were announced for Sydney’s CBD and east, including the popular Totti’s restaurant in Bondi, The Royal Bondi pub and a Woolworths at Spring Farm in Sydney’s southwest.

NSW Health also ramped up its advice around the original infection site at Westfield Bondi Junction and is asking anyone who was there - including in the car park area - at any time between June 12 and June 18 to get tested.

Masks are now compulsory until midnight on June 30 on public transport and in most indoor settings for people in Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Illawarra and Shellharbour regions.

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