COVID-19 hotspots

Hotspots are places in Australia where health officials have found a lot of people with COVID-19, or places that are at risk of a lot of COVID-19 infections. Hotspots are legally listed so that people travelling from those high-risk areas into Queensland can be identified.

From 10 July 2020, people who have been in a hotspot in the last 14 days will only be able to enter Queensland if they are a returning Queensland resident or required to enter for a limited range of essential reasons. Queensland residents returning to Queensland from a hotspot must quarantine for 14 days on entering Queensland. This will help reduce the chance that they might infect other people.

Details of who is exempt from mandatory quarantine, even if they have been to a hotspot, can be found on the Border Restrictions page.

Declared hotspots

l, Dr Jeannette Young, Chief Health Officer, reasonably believe it is necessary to publish the following list of COVID-19 hotspots pursuant to the powers under s362B of the Public Health Act 2005 to assist in containing, or to respond to, the spread of COVID-19 within the community.

The direction applies from 1.00 am on Saturday 8 August 2020 until the end of the declared public health emergency, unless it is revoked or replaced. The purpose of this direction is to identify COVID-19 hotspots for:

• Public Health Direction – Border Restrictions Direction (No. 11) or its successor
• other public health directions about the movement of people to or from COVID-19 hotspots.

This restriction means people who have been in a COVID-19 hotspot within the last 14 days will be turned away at our border, subject to limited exceptions as set out in Border Restrictions Direction No. 11

From 1.00 am on Saturday 8 August 2020, the State of New South Wales, including all Local Government Areas (LGAs) and unincorporated areas, and the Australian Capital Territory are declared as COVID-19 hotspots. This is in addition to the State of Victoria, including all LGAs and unincorporated areas.

A full list of current declared COVID-19 hotspots is provided below:

Under the Border Restrictions Direction (No. 11), a person who has been in COVID-19 hotspot is not required to quarantine if the person:

• needs to come to Queensland to complete an essential activity
• arrives into Queensland by air and transfers directly to another flight to leave Queensland or quarantines until their flight out of Queensland
• was in a COVID-19 hotspot for the sole purpose of transiting through an airport
• can provide evidence that they completed mandatory hotel quarantine in a COVID-19 hotspot and immediately transited to Queensland, unless they flew out of Melbourne Tullamarine airport
• are a border zone resident and have not been in a hotspot in the last 14 days.

Previous declarations of COVID-19 hotspots are detailed below: