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Until a purpose-built quarantine facility for returning Australian residents and citizens is built in Queensland, the state's Deputy Premier has called on the Federal Government to be stricter with exemptions for arrivals.
The comments were made by Deputy Premier Steven Miles at today's press conference regarding the COVID-19 situation in Queensland, where it was revealed that two more locally acquired cases of the coronavirus have been detected.
The state also announced new COVID-19 restrictions today that will come into effect at 1am tonight, including mandatory mask wearing, reduced capacities in venues, and the banning of dancing.
RELATED: Need to know: the new COVID-19 restrictions around Australia
"I think the Federal Government needs to be stricter with the exemptions they're providing to people to come here," Miles said.
"Hotel quarantine of international travellers is our single greatest source of COVID into our country and into our communities."
The Deputy Premier acknowledged that those returning to Australia are permanent residents and citizens, but stressed the current settings are putting lives at risk.
"Until the Commonwealth Government can address those concerns and certainly while we deal with this delicate situation, the Premier has indicated we will seek to reduce the number of arrivals into Queensland - that will relieve pressure on hotel quarantine," Miles said.
"But we wouldn't be in this situation, we wouldn't be reducing our number of international arrivals, if we had purpose-built facilities which could be up and running."
As such, Miles has urged the Commonwealth to support the Queensland Government's proposal to build a dedicated quarantine facility in Wellcamp which could house up to 1,000 people at a time.
Updated at 12.34pm AEST on 28 June 2021.
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