From SMH.com.au:
Queensland border to stay closed until after election
By Lydia Lynch
Queensland's border will remain closed to most of NSW until after the state election on October 31, Deputy Premier Steven Miles has confirmed.
The 28 days of zero community virus transmission in NSW that Queensland demanded before reopening the border was reset last Friday even though
health authorities believed they had linked the case to a known outbreak.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said genome testing of the western Sydney man "indicates that he has a type of genome sequence that is linked to [the Liverpool Hospital cluster]".
However, NSW Health had not been able to find "a definitive source or interaction" that caused the transmission and it would be up to Queensland health authorities to determine if they still considered the case not to be linked to the known cluster.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young confirmed it would still be treated as a mystery case and the border clock was now at seven of 28 days.
"
The nationally agreed-to discussion was that it needed to be linked within 48 hours and we are beyond that time frame now," she said. "So it is about easily linking a case."
Dr Young said the trigger for a border opening with NSW would be reached on October 22 if no unlinked cases of COVID-19 were found before then.
But the earliest Queensland would actually open the border would be on November 1, the day after the Queensland state election, Mr Miles confirmed.
"It is only today that we have expanded that border zone, let's see how that goes, clearly there are still active cases in Sydney," he said.
"The real test there is how easily [cases] can be linked and if you can't link it within 48 hours then it is difficult to know what other risks were about."
The confirmation borders would stay closed through October came as no new cases were detected in Queensland and the border bubble with NSW was extended further south.