Queensland Premier defends state’s exemption process after woman dies with son stuck in quarantine
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended the state’s COVID-19 exemption process after a Cairns man said his mother died overnight while he was stuck in NSW hotel quarantine.
Anthony McCormick raced home from Canada after learning his mother was diagnosed with cancer, he told the Today show.
He was quickly granted a quarantine exception from NSW Health but was waiting on an exemption request from Queensland Health.
Ms Palaszczuk said Mr McCormick’s exemption request was still with New South Wales Health.
“Our hearts go out to him, to lose someone so close, it’s just awful,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We all lose relatives, it’s not nice.”
The premier defended the state’s exemption department and said she has asked for additional staff to assist with the “hundreds” of exemption requests.
“These are very tragic situations … there’s hundreds of exemptions that people are applying for, and we’re trying to process them as quickly as possible,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“They’re trying their best; they’re humans; they’re trying their very best.”
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young said Mr McCormick had only arrived back in Australia on Tuesday.
“He only arrived in Sydney on the 6th of July, and we’ve been working with the New South Wales authorities to look at what could be done to assist him,” Dr Young said.
Mr McCormick claims he was quickly granted a quarantine exception from NSW Health, but Queensland Health denied him entry into the state at the last minute.
“She was very upset that I couldn’t get in there and see her. That was really what she was hanging on for.” Mr McCormick said.
“NSW Health were amazing. They had proactively called me before I even got on my flight, had the exemption plan all laid out and while I was on the flight, they actually executed it,”
“Queensland Health, on the other hand, were silent … I didn’t receive a single phone call.”
