Live coverage | Border closure 'required and necessary': Health Minister
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has said the two cases recorded in Albury yesterday afternoon demonstrate why the closure of the NSW-Victoria border was necessary.
Asked about the feasibility of actually blocking all 55 border crossings, Mr Hazzard admitted they may not all be being patrolled by midnight tonight, but said it would not be worth someone attempting to sneak across. "There will be queues, there will be frustration, there will be lots of questions, but we're doing this to keep everybody safe and to also make sure that the Victorian government has the resources it needs to focus on containing the spread," she said.
"But consider this – what if NSW then had to shut down as well?" Ms Berejiklian asked. "Then where would the economy be?"The federal Labor MP for the Melbourne electorate of Wills, and a former housing commission resident himself, Peter Khalil, is “very upset” and “very concerned” about the lockdown at nine public housing estates.
He said this was not a “Labor or Liberal thing” and the government must try and mitigate risks at other towers in the state immediately. "Right from the start in February, we've talked about the concept of rings of containment, whether it's been suburbs, broader areas, such as north-west Tasmania, or when it's required, to take that step," Mr Hunt told ABCFederal Health Minister Greg Hunt has claimed the closure of the NSW-Victoria border is an example of a local lockdown as was"always planned" in the event of an outbreak.
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