Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced that fully-vaccinated travellers will be able to make quarantine-free trips to and from Queensland from 1am on December 13, four days earlier than the originally planned reopening date of December 17. Unvaccinated people from outside of Queensland will also be allowed to enter the state, but they will be required to enter hotel quarantine for 14 days.
The Queensland government has made the decision to bring the reopening date forward as the state has almost reached its reopening vaccination target of 80 per cent. However, there will still be certain testing requirements for all entries into the state, regardless of their vaccination status. Arrivals by both air or road will need to produce a negative PCR test result, taken no less than 72 hours prior to entering the state; and for those staying in the state longer than five days, a second negative test will be required on day five of their stay. Unvaccinated people will only be permitted to enter the state via air, so they can be safely processed for their hotel quarantine period.
Previously, Queensland has restricted travel for all people based in certain "hotspot" areas regardless of their vaccination status, which has included the whole of Greater Sydney and Greater Melbourne. However, while those areas are still classed as hotspots, vaccinated travellers will now be automatically exempt from former travel embargos.
Queensland currently has zero community transmission, but Palaszczuk acknowledged that reopening borders would result in the virus entering the community, saying that the state's "reasoned and sensible reopening plan" would allow Queensland to manage the influx of cases.