Brisbane lockdown lifted with mask mandate extended
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has this morning confirmed the greater Brisbane lockdown will be lifted at 6pm this evening but some restrictions will remain.
Ms Palaszczuk said there had been no new locally acquired cases detected in Queensland overnight.
Despite lockdown being lifted, Ms Palaszczuk has extended mandatory mask in greater Brisbane restrictions until 1am on January 22.
Masks will be mandatory in the following places:
- Shopping centres, supermarkets, retail outlets and indoor markets
- Hospitals and aged care facilities
- Places of worship
- Libraries
- Indoor recreational facilities such as museums, cinemas and gyms
- On public transport and in taxis and rideshares
Gatherings will be limited again both in private homes and at public venues, while the Gabba Test will go ahead at 50 per cent capacity with masks mandatory when entering, leaving and moving around the venue.
Businesses and venues will also be subject to the return of restrictions seen earlier in the pandemic, including the return of the four sqm rule.
The announcement has come as “a relief” to QLD Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind.
Even a brief lockdown has hit restaurants and retailers hard, he told Mark Levy, but the impacts of an outbreak would be worse – particularly with the threat of more interstate border closures.
“What we’re observing from a distance in the UK and the US … is such a frightening prospect that everybody’s probably willing to get a bit of short term pain for long term gain.”
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