Stoush over regional quarantine ramps up

“Our hotels weren’t built for this contagious strain, this UK variant – our hotels are for travellers and tourists and businesses and they are taking the place of hospitals at the moment,” she told Nine’s Today Show.

“Of course there are issues about in the corridor – this virus is actually circulating in the corridors,” she said.

“So it is a wake-up call. It is happening in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, so we have got to do more.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has continued to push back against calls to move quarantine systems for returned travellers outside capital cities and into the regions.

“I don’t think it would work for NSW. I’m quite comfortable with the current set-up,” she told Today.