Melbourne locks door for people fleeing second shutdown, to last six weeks as COVID-19 cases surge

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said people were willing to pay for their own 14-day hotel quarantine to be allowed to escape Melbourne and other parts of Victoria that began

A woman looks out a window from a locked-down public housing tower in Melbourne, Monday, July 6, 2020. As Australia is emerging from pandemic restrictions, the Victoria state capital Melbourne is buckling down with more extreme and divisive measures that  

CANBERRA: An Australian state has closed its doors to people fleeing a second lockdown in Australia's second-largest city.

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said on Thursday that a number of people were willing to pay for their own 14-day hotel quarantine to be allowed to escape Melbourne and other parts of Victoria state that began a six-week shutdown Wednesday because of an expanding coronavirus outbreak.

Miles said from Friday anyone who has been in Victoria in the previous two weeks would be banned except for Queensland residents coming home and few other exceptions.

"We need to reserve hotel accommodation for people who need to be quarantined, so we will be much stricter," Miles said.

"That will mean some very hard decisions. There will be people who have very good reasons to travel to Queensland and while there will continue to be compassionate grounds, hardship considerations," but the rules would be strictly applied, he added.