Queensland has suspended hotel quarantine for anyone arriving from an interstate hotspot as accommodation overflows. 

For the next fortnight, only people with special exemptions will be allowed to enter Queensland from a hotspot, commencing 12pm today.

New arrivals and Queensland residents will have to reapply for a border pass.

“We simply just do not have any room at the moment,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

The state government says quarantine hotels have been overwhelmed by people relocating to Queensland to escape lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria.

“While we have allowed genuine relocations for work and other purposes, it has overwhelmed our hotels and it has to be stopped at least for the next fortnight.

“We are reassessing, we are looking at other options.”

As of yesterday, 5,114 people were in 22 quarantine hotels – 3,257 from interstate and 1,857 from overseas. Between 9 and 20 August, 2,750 were granted border passes to relocate to Queensland – that includes 1,993 in a single week.

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 25, 2021

“It just adds to the suggestion that they’ve buggered up hotel quarantine, whether it be in Queensland, whether it be in other states,” The Courier Mail columnist told Joe Hildebrand.

“The Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory is terrific but we need a couple of these things, Joe!”

Press PLAY below to hear Peter Gleeson’s comments in full 

Image: Annastacia Palaszczuk / Twitter