All Victorian-SA border restrictions to be dropped from December 1, if no mystery cases emerge

Victorians will be able to travel in SA with no restrictions by December 1 (provided no mystery COVID cases emerge) – and stand-up drinking in pubs is set to return.

SOUTH Australia will reopen to Victoria in time for the Christmas holidays, while a raft of other coronavirus bans are set to ease within days.

In a series of highly anticipated decisions hailed as a significant economic and social boost, the Transition Committee on Friday announced the border ban with Victoria would lift from December 1.

Caps on numbers at funerals, weddings and home events would also ease next week.

Drinking while standing in licensed premises is likely to be allowed from next Friday.

In another major development, Western Australia reopened its borders to SA at midnight Friday night.

Premier Steven Marshall yesterday hailed the imminent reopening of the Victorian border.

”This will be a huge relief to people as we head into December. I know this is a moment many have been waiting for,” he said.

As SA Health recorded no new COVID-19 cases and Victoria reported zero daily patients for a fortnight, emergency management laws were extended from Saturday, for 28 days.

The December 1 date will represent 28 days since the Victorian borders were partially eased to allow people to relocate to SA.

Premier Steven Marshall speaks to the media. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

The decisions came despite concerns over the “reinfection” of an Adelaide aged-care nurse in her 20s, who tested positive on Monday after returning from Melbourne.

But, after health advice found interstate risks had diminished, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens decided to scrap the Victorian hard border and quarantine rules – more than four months after all but essential travel was banned.

Mr Stevens’ decision, made in his role as state COVID co-ordinator, will be overturned if a virus outbreak erupts in the next fortnight.

The hard border came into force on July 8.

A two-staged easing was rejected due to compliance issues after police and SA Health spent the past few days checking if a home quarantine arrangement could be adequately staffed.

The committee, on which chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier also sits, will finalise further easing of capacity restrictions on Tuesday but will not change the one person per 2sq m density rule.

Announcing the changes after hearing “sobering” data on “staggering” rates of overseas second-wave infections, Mr Marshall said hard borders had been “our first line of defence”.

Reopening the Victorian border will reunite families, stimulate the economy, boost tourism and create jobs, he said.

SA Tourism Commission figures show almost half of domestic visitors are from Victoria, pumping more than a $1bn a year into the state’s economy.

Industry leaders praised the border decision, with Property Council SA executive director Daniel Gannon describing it as a “stroke of good fortune”.

“After a horror 2020, Friday the 13th has delivered great news on state borders,” he said.

Business SA chief executive Martin Haese welcomed it as a “Christmas gift for our hardworking businesses”.

SATC chief executive Rodney Harrex said SA was “ready to welcome back our biggest domestic interstate market and give Victorians a long overdue hug”.

Drinking while standing up will likely be allowed in licensed venues from next Friday if mandatory QR codes and identification-tracking technology is successfully trialled at no cost to venues.

Mr Stevens guaranteed data security. The Department of Premier and Cabinet will store information that is restricted to contact tracers and purged after 28 days.

“This is our ammunition to attack any sort of outbreak so we can start the contact tracing immediately,” he said.

Dancing while drinking alcohol will remain banned.

Professor Spurrier said more tests were needed on the nurse’s unusual case but results showed it was “plausible” to be the “tail end” of a second old infection.

The woman, who is in a stable condition in the Peppers medi-hotel, Waymouth St, has not shown any symptoms of the disease.

She tested positive to coronavirus in August.

On Friday, Prof Spurrier said it was “plausible” it was a reinfection.

“It looks like a second infection – if it is a second infection – that occurred some time ago and is also an old infection,” she said.

After recovering, the woman arrived at Adelaide Airport on Monday morning and checked into a hotel for a fortnight of mandatory quarantine.

Her compulsory first-day test was positive.

Authorities called the case “complicated” as they worked out whether is it is a reinfection or if she was still shedding old traces of the virus after three months.

Almost all of the country’s microbiologists and pathologist have been involved.

A Channel 9 crew have tested negative and will remain in quarantine for the next fortnight.

Prof Spurrier also said on Friday she had authorised a series of music festivals, but declined to name them, and was asked about gyms using fans.

She said gyms would not be fined for using fans but urged gym owners to use them on a slower setting.

Long, painful wait is virtually over

Virtual parties have helped Sahra Connor stay connected with her Adelaide family on special occasions – all from the confines of her home in Melbourne during lockdown.

But now she can finally plan to see them for the first time since January.

“It’s been pretty tough missing out on the birthdays and all those sorts of things,” she said yesterday.

“My grandmother’s been asking when I can come over and it’s been hard not being able to tell her.

“The other thing I find difficult is my friends’ children. I see them at various points in time on Facetime and almost don’t recognise them now.”

Ms Connor, a lawyer, moved to Melbourne about seven years ago and usually returns to Adelaide about 10 times a year.

Sahra Connor, a South Australian living in Melbourne, is happy that she can travel to Adelaide with her dog Tiger Lily now that the borders are about to reopen. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

This year, an online face-to-face party with her mother, sister and grandmother, and a virtual wine-tasting party for her father's birthday, were among new strategies employed to help celebrate special occasions.

“While it’s been quite a difficult time, it’s been quite a good time to be creative and find ways to connect with people that you otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do,” Ms Connor said.

Sahra’s mum, Sue, said her daughter was lucky to have her boxer dog, Tiger Lily, to keep her company during the height of Melbourne’s restrictions. “We’ve really missed her. My husband has been ringing her every single day when he’s on his way to work or meetings,” she said.

Marilyn Argall, based in Mildura, said she was “pretty damn excited” to be able to plan to see her family in SA. “I’ve missed them so much, and they’ve missed me,” she said.

Gail Hateley, of Langkoop, just over the Victorian border, was also looking forward to seeing her daughters and grandchildren who live in SA. “I haven’t seen them since January,” she said.

– with Michelle Etheridge