coronavirus,
Cars travelling into the ACT from NSW weren’t being stopped by police and checked on Monday, despite the ACT banning people from Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong from entering the capital. A lack of resources and confusion over who needs to make the call to send police to man the border appear to be barriers to the ACT enforcing the restrictions more stringently. The ACT recorded no new cases on COVID-19 on Monday, with just one case in the territory in hotel quarantine. ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman also said ACT residents should re-consider their need to travel in NSW in coming days and be prepared for the requirements to change as more information comes to hand. She also said Canberrans should be prepared for the current restrictions on travellers from Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong to still be in place on Christmas Day, but a final decision would be made in coming days. Deputy Chief of Police Michael Chew said, “We’re still working with ACT Health and ACT government about what the border management strategy will be.” He said the decisions were complicated by how many border crossings existed between the ACT and NSW. Commander Chew said there was planning around border strategies in March and April but resourcing those strategies was an issue. “We’re not at a stage where we will be checking every vehicle or every person that comes back into Canberra through the roads,” he said. “We’re looking at some presence on the Federal Highway to capture traffic coming down the highway that would predominately be from Sydney.” Commander Chew said getting officers on the highway would depend on resources available. There has been confusion around who must make the call to authorise police to start checking cars at the border. Dr Coleman said she didn’t want to rely on police enforcement to make sure people did the right thing and followed the public health orders. Earlier on Monday, Dr Coleman said on ABC radio she expected the police to have some kind of presence on the Federal Highway. “We have a great tradition in the ACT, over the past nine months people have really come along with us, people’s compliance to date and coming on board with all of our measures has been fantastic,” she said. “So while we are looking at this option to try and support and strengthen that, and ensure we protect residents, we are really relying on people to do the right thing.” Acting Health Minister Chris Steel said the government wasn’t considering asking for support from the defence force to help patrol the border at this time. “We’re asking people to use common sense,” Mr Steel said when asked if the government was taking a risk by relying on people to do the right thing ahead of long-planned family celebrations. On Monday, NSW Health confirmed another 15 cases connected to the Avalon outbreak, and Dr Coleman said ACT residents who had been in Sydney need to pay attention to the constantly updated list of exposure sites. Dr Coleman apologised for the confusion created by mistakenly including the Illawarra-Shoalhaven area as a hotspot on Sunday afternoon, saying her staff had been working in good faith following information provided by NSW Health. READ MORE:
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Cars travelling into the ACT from NSW weren’t being stopped by police and checked on Monday, despite the ACT banning people from Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong from entering the capital.
A lack of resources and confusion over who needs to make the call to send police to man the border appear to be barriers to the ACT enforcing the restrictions more stringently.
The ACT recorded no new cases on COVID-19 on Monday, with just one case in the territory in hotel quarantine.
ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman also said ACT residents should re-consider their need to travel in NSW in coming days and be prepared for the requirements to change as more information comes to hand.
She also said Canberrans should be prepared for the current restrictions on travellers from Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong to still be in place on Christmas Day, but a final decision would be made in coming days.
Deputy Chief of Police Michael Chew said, “We’re still working with ACT Health and ACT government about what the border management strategy will be.”
He said the decisions were complicated by how many border crossings existed between the ACT and NSW.
Commander Chew said there was planning around border strategies in March and April but resourcing those strategies was an issue.
“We’re not at a stage where we will be checking every vehicle or every person that comes back into Canberra through the roads,” he said.
“We’re looking at some presence on the Federal Highway to capture traffic coming down the highway that would predominately be from Sydney.”
Commander Chew said getting officers on the highway would depend on resources available.
There has been confusion around who must make the call to authorise police to start checking cars at the border.
Dr Coleman said she didn’t want to rely on police enforcement to make sure people did the right thing and followed the public health orders.
“We have a great tradition in the ACT, over the past nine months people have really come along with us, people’s compliance to date and coming on board with all of our measures has been fantastic,” she said.
“So while we are looking at this option to try and support and strengthen that, and ensure we protect residents, we are really relying on people to do the right thing.”
Acting Health Minister Chris Steel said the government wasn’t considering asking for support from the defence force to help patrol the border at this time.
“We’re asking people to use common sense,” Mr Steel said when asked if the government was taking a risk by relying on people to do the right thing ahead of long-planned family celebrations.
On Monday, NSW Health confirmed another 15 cases connected to the Avalon outbreak, and Dr Coleman said ACT residents who had been in Sydney need to pay attention to the constantly updated list of exposure sites.
Dr Coleman apologised for the confusion created by mistakenly including the Illawarra-Shoalhaven area as a hotspot on Sunday afternoon, saying her staff had been working in good faith following information provided by NSW Health.
