Closing border could depend on three factors about Omicron Covid variant
Borders are still open, with new rules for some travellers – but staying that way hinges on three trigger points of the Omicron variant.
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There is no magic formula to determine whether South Australia’s borders will need to close again if Omicron variant cases interstate increase, Premier Steven Marshall says.
Extra “speed bumps” had been put in place on travellers to reduce risks but there was not enough evidence yet to establish a trigger for closure.
“It’s my hope we can stick with the framework (of open borders), that we continue to increase our vaccination rates here in SA, that we can enjoy a pretty normal Christmas,” Mr Marshall said.
He acknowledged there would be anxiety as Omicron Covid case numbers grew interstate.
But it was “not that simple” to decide the effect on borders, Mr Marshall said.
The government was considering three factors about the Omicron variant – how quickly it spread, whether existing vaccines stopped it and whether people who caught it were severely ill.
On those factors, it seemed to be highly transmissible, there was insufficient data on vaccine efficacy and only anecdotal evidence it was relatively mild.
“We will act very quickly if we need to,” he said.
SA had already increased quarantine for international arrivals from seven days to 14 and at the weekend added the speed bumps on travellers from NSW, Victoria and the ACT of a test on day six. They must also take a Covid test on arrival and isolate until a negative result.
“So if we do get a case of Omicron in SA, we can jump on that straight away,” he said.
Mr Marshall rejected claims SA Health’s advice to close border was ignored by the transition committee.
“It would be completely incorrect to say ignore,” Mr Marshall said.
“What we do is take a lot in a lot of information, people come into the meeting with different starting positions and we start working through those to get to a consensus.”
State co-ordinator and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier “was in agreement” with the final decision to keep borders open even though “there was a recommendation from SA Health that we shut our borders to NSW, Victoria and the ACT on the basis that we simply didn’t know enough about this (variant)”.
“So there was a process that was followed – it’s not simply Nicola coming in saying we should do this and I say ‘no it doesn’t sound good to me’,” Mr Stevens said.
While not ruling out borders might close in future, Mr Stevens said there was a “strong reluctance” to do that.
“It was only November 23, or prior to that, we were announcing to people that we were opening our borders on the 23rd and people made plans, lots of people travelled interstate and thousands of people visited SA,” he said.
“The last thing we want to do is upset those plans unnecessarily.”
Mr Stevens said everyone who tested positive to Covid would be sent to the Tom’s Court medi-hotel at this stage.
Mr Marshall defended there being examples of five-day lags for places where infected persons had visited making it to the SA Health exposure sites list.
He also dismissed IT errors and glitches being reported by those using the HealthCheck app.
There have been four new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total number of cases reported in SA to date to 971.
Today’s cases are two men aged in their 20s and 60s and two women aged in their 30s and 50s.
A case who was previously classified as unlinked and spent time in the Port Noarlunga region has been identified as a false positive. There is no risk to the public and this case has been removed from our numbers.
The case reported yesterday as being under investigation has been classified as interstate acquired.
At the weekend, Premier Steven Marshall said he was leaving open the prospect of closing South Australia’s borders because authorities were “extraordinarily concerned” about the threat posed by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Tighter requirements for interstate visitors were imposed after a directions committee meeting on Saturday morning, which left borders open despite a closure recommendation from Prof Spurrier.