It may come as no surprise – but this morning, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that Queensland is closing its border to NSW.

The closure begins at 1am tomorrow morning (Friday, July 23) as Queensland declares the whole of NSW a hotspot.

For the next four weeks, only NSW/QLD border zone residents can enter the state for "essential reasons".

In good news for Lismore – our area is included in this allowed border zone.

This is despite the news that two construction workers at the Lismore Base Hospital redevelopment site were identified as close contacts of a COVID-19 exposure site in Coffs Harbour. Read more: Lismore Base Hospital construction workers in isolation.

Essential reasons for cross border travel include healthcare, work, education, essential shopping and caring for vulnerable people.

Queensland residents will be able to travel into the NSW border zone for similar reasons, but not further than the border zone.

Queensland residents can return from non-border zone locations in NSW, but will need to complete 14 days in hotel quarantine.

Other local government areas and regions in the NSW/Qld border zone are Ballina, Bourke, Brewarrina, Broken Hill, Byron, Clarence Valley, Glen Innes Severn, Gwydir, Inverell, Kyogle, Lismore, Moree Plains, Richmond Valley, Tenterfield, Tweed, Unincorporated Far West and Walgett.

The border closure comes after NSW records 124 new locally acquired cases. It is the highest daily number in the current outbreak, which began mid-June.

The QLD/NSW border could reopen sooner than the four weeks, depending on the outcome of their current outbreak.

Travel requirements

Face mask restrictions will continue to apply in South East Queensland. This includes anyone who has been to the impacted areas in South East Queensland in the last 14 days.

If you need to travel to Queensland, you must complete a Queensland Travel Declaration to enter Queensland from anywhere in Australia or New Zealand, including returning Queensland residents.

You must complete the Queensland Travel Declaration in the 3 days before you travel to Queensland. It takes a few minutes to complete and your declaration will be sent to your email.

You will be asked where you have been in the past 14 days. You must list all states and territories you have visited, even if your visit was brief or you travelled through an area.

If conditions change or you need to update your travel details, you’ll need to complete a new declaration with updated details before you enter Queensland.

Read more about where you can travel to: https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/public-health-directions/travelling-to-queensland

NSW Covid update

Of the 124 NSW locally acquired cases, 67 are linked to a known case or cluster – 45 are household contacts and 22 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 57 cases is under investigation.

Thirty-seven cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 22 cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period. Forty-eight cases were infectious in the community, and the isolation status of 17 cases remains under investigation.

No new overseas-acquired cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Four cases reported previously, but since found to be false positives, have been excluded, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 7,164.

There have been 1,648 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021, when the first case in the Bondi cluster was reported.

There are currently 118 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 28 people in intensive care, 14 of whom require ventilation.

There were 85,185 COVID-19 tests reported to 8pm last night, a new record compared with the previous day’s total of 83,477.

NSW Health administered 23,549 COVID-19 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, including 7,923 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.

The total number of vaccines administered in NSW is now 3,226,932, with 1,258,864 doses administered by NSW Health to 8pm last night and 1,968,068 administered by the GP network and other providers to 11:59pm on Tuesday 20 July 2021.