COVID-19: Queensland planning to use mining camps as quarantine facilities for travellers

Amidst the growing number of coronavirus infections, the Australian state of Queensland is mulling to use mining camps as quarantine centres for incoming travellers, state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on January 14. Located on the country’s northeast, Queensland is battered by the recent surge in infection from the UK mutant of coronavirus and recently ordered people quarantining in capital Brisbane to repeat their isolation. Australia, which is facing economic sanctions by China, is also struggling to contain health crisis with 28,658 cases and 909 fatalities reported to date.

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 "We are going to look at all options and one of those options is to look at some of the mining camps that we have in Queensland," Palaszczuk said at a media briefing adding that she would pitch the idea at a meeting with the federal government in the coming days.

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Mandatory quarantine 

As per the regulations put out by Scott Morrison led government, all incoming international passengers are required to undergo mandatory isolation for 14 days at the designated facility. However, keeping in view the recent outbreak at Hotel Grand Chancellor, the premier asserted that it was a time that the passengers needed to be quarantined not in hotels. “I  think it is a rational option and if we are dealing with the strain which is up to 70 per cent more infectious, I think we need to be serious about it.

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Annastacia Palaszczuk, in November 2020,  won a third consecutive term in Australian state elections in which voters strongly endorsed her government’s tough policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including closing state borders. Annastacia Palaszczuk, dubbed the “accidental premier” when she came to power unexpectedly in 2015, became the first female Australian political leader to win three consecutive elections. She has, since then, been adamant upon imposing stringent measures to curb infection.