Qld set to ramp up home quarantine scheme
The Queensland government will outline an expansion of home quarantine for domestic travellers, a day after figures showed more 70 per cent of eligible residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to announce the expected changes to home quarantine options on Monday morning.
The vaccine drive has gathered pace as the Queensland government plans to ban unvaccinated people from venues once 80 per cent of residents are fully vaccinated.
Almost 82 per cent of eligible Queenslanders have had one jab and 70.25 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Ms Palaszczuk will announce that fully vaccinated domestic travellers who return a negative PCR test and fly in from hotspots can quarantine at home, as long as their residence meets requirements.
Applicants must live within two hours' drive of an airport and they must be able to directly access their homes from outside, rather than via shared enclosed entrances.
Domestic arrivals from areas of Australia that aren't COVID-19 hotspots will still be able to enter Queensland without any restrictions or quarantine requirements.
The expansion of home quarantine for domestic travellers is also likely to reduce pressure on hotel quarantine places, potentially allowing more international travellers to fly into Queensland.
It's unclear whether Queensland plans lift its weekly international arrivals cap of 500 people, with a surge capacity of an additional 150 people.
Meanwhile, the state's mandate for interstate truck drivers to be fully vaccinated has come into effect on Monday morning.
Queensland Trucking Association chief executive Gary Mahon says most drivers have had one jab or are fully vaccinated, but about five per cent have left the industry or shifted to intrastate driving only.
"Some of them have given this line of work away, and others have chosen to move to a different line of work, so there's been a bit of a blend of different, you might say, attitudes," he told ABC radio on Monday.
"And there's been a very small percentage of those who probably, you know, you would generally categorise as falling into the anti-vax group."
Mr Mahon said given the industry had abided by the government's vaccine mandate, it was time to drop the requirement that interstate truckies must return a negative PCR test every seven days.
The industry has asked the Queensland government to drop the measure, but is yet to get a response.
"The seven-day requirement, we believe, should be dropped and also when we can't see why you would need to maintain the administration around freight passes," Mr Mahon said.
"So we've asked a question and we're waiting on an answer in the next week or so."
