Five-day testing after arrival lifted

Covid testing

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5 day testing after arrival in Port Douglas or the Douglas Shire no longer required. IMAGE: Newsport

The Queensland Government announced today that the five-day testing requirement for arrivals into Queensland has been lifted, effective immediately, freeing up testing clinic capacity for those who need it most.

But the requirement for a negative PCR test 72 hours prior to entry into Queensland if travelling from an interstate hot spot remains in place.

Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Yvette D’Ath said that the recommendation to lift the requirement for day five testing came from the Chief Health Officer.

“Like with all of our health measures in Queensland, we take a cautious and measured approach to protect our community, based off expert health advice.

“The primary goal of day five testing was to catch COVID-19 cases as early as possible in travellers from hotspots.

“Thankfully, we’ve seen very few positive COVID-19 test results from testing asymptomatic people. We sampled around 24,000 day 5 tests and only 0.6 per cent were positive,” she said.

D’Ath said it’s for this reason we are confident in removing the requirement to have a COVID-19 test on day 5 after arriving in Queensland.

Minister D’Ath said all border restrictions continued to be reviewed as the state edged closer to the 90 percent double-dose milestone.

“Keep getting vaccinated Queensland, and we can keep easing restrictions and getting on with as normal a life as possible,” Minister D’Ath said.

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