Health by Emily Cosenza
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Subscriber only Travellers from Greater Brisbane will soon be able to enter South Australia without needing to quarantine, health authorities have announced. SA chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said the change to border arrangements would come into effect as of 12.01am on Sunday. Speaking after the state s Transition Committee meeting on Tuesday, she said travellers from Greater Brisbane would however need to be tested on days one, five and 12 of their stay. Prof Spurrier said that Sunday would mark 14 days since Queensland had its first case - the cleaner who caught the UK mutant strain of coronavirus from hotel quarantine.
So all six have a connection to the Grand Chancellor Hotel.
As a precautionary measure, all guests in quarantine at the Grand Chancellor are being moved to other hotels.
And 250 guests who were in the hotel previously will be tested and quarantined.
Only two new cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in Queensland in the past 24 hours, both in hotel quarantine.
Ms Palaszczuk said it comes after 20,615 tests were conducted yesterday. So once again, congratulations to everyone who has been coming in and getting tested and if you have any symptoms, make sure that you do that, she said. So everything we have done in the past six days is because of the arrival of the highly infectious UK strain of COVID.
Queensland Quarantine Hotel Shut as Cluster Grows
The Queensland government is shutting a quarantine hotel after six people staying there contracted the deadly UK strain of COVID-19.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says all six cases in the COVID-19 cluster stayed on the seventh floor of Brisbane’s Grand Chancellor Hotel while in quarantine. They are all in isolation.
All 129 people staying at the hotel are being moved to another hotel and tested before restarting their 14-day quarantine.
“Have a look what’s happening in the UK, what’s happening in Ireland, I mean, this, if it if it gets out of control it can have devastating consequences,” the premier told reporters.
 A Queensland virologist has condemned a desperate UK decision to delay giving Brits their second COVID-19 vaccine dose, saying it could put worldwide efforts to contain the virus at risk. Griffith University s Nigel McMillan said the tactic threatened to result in the emergence of a vaccine-resistant variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. With the pandemic virus overwhelming UK hospitals, particularly in London, Great Britain has announced it is prioritising the administration of the first vaccine dose, with the second jab to be given up to 12 weeks later.  The results from COVID-19 vaccine trials have been based on the second dose being given only three or four weeks after the initial shot.
Authorities Remain on Alert in Brisbane for Virus
The man initially tested negative in the morning on Jan. 7 but became unwell in the evening.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is asking anyone who has been to the venues he visited in the two days before Jan. 7 to come forward for testing.
The venues are Bunnings Warehouse Acacia Ridge, between 2 p.m. and 2.15 p.m. on Jan. 5; and Sunnybank Cellars, between 2.05 p.m. and 2.15 p.m. on Jan. 6.
“The risk is low, but the risk is there, so I really ask you to come forward,” she told reporters. Dr Jeannette Young looks on at a press conference in Brisbane, Australia on Jan. 11, 2021. (Jono Searle/Getty Images)