Coronavirus in SA: New Tailem Bend exposure site identified as Grant Stevens issues ‘harsh warning’ to SA

SA Health has revealed another Tailem Bend service station was exposed to Covid-19. It comes after the police commissioner issued a stern warning on new restrictions.

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South Australian health authorities used GPS and mobile phone data to track the movements of three removalists who visited the state while infected with Covid-19.

A third coronavirus exposure site visited by the Sydney workers was announced on Wednesday night – five days after the group visited.

An urgent alert issued by SA Health identified the OTR Motorsport Park service station as a new “location of concern”.

Anyone who visited the service station between 7.20am and 8.15am last Friday needs to immediately quarantine and get tested. A fourth site is still being investigated.

SA Health has identified an additional exposure location associated with positive cases of COVID-19.

Tailem Bend — OTR Motorsport Park service station, Dukes Highway
▪ Friday 9 July — 7.20 am to 8.15 am

ℹ https://t.co/4sJYadglJupic.twitter.com/5Qgr9kNVnJ

— SA Health (@SAHealth) July 14, 2021

Deputy chief public health officer Dr Emily Kirkpatrick said health authorities had worked with police in South Australia and New South Wales to access GPS data.

“It has provided us this additional location,” she told ABC Radio Adelaide on Thursday.

“We’ve been able to map out that timeline in their travel along the Dukes Highway, then coming into McLaren Vale and out again.

“So we have a very clear timeline, we have the traffic data to support this and now we have the GPS data.”

Dr Kirkpatrick said SA Health was not aware of any other locations of concern, but the group’s mobile phone data was being re-analysed.

She couldn’t rule out the possibility that further exposure sites will be identified.

“I can’t say, hand on my heart, there will be no further locations being put out to the community related directly to the removalists, but we are very pleased that we finally have found that petrol stop that was made on the way into South Australia,” she said.

Unlike health authorities in Victoria, who said the removalists were “not being as forthcoming” with information as they would have hoped, Dr Kirkpatrick stopped short of criticising the men.

“These individuals do continue to take our calls ... and they are providing that information that they do have,” she said.

SA Health staff have spoken to one of the individuals in a foreign language in an attempt to extract further information.

STERN WARNING ON RESTRICTIONS

It comes as the state’s Covid-19 chief warns South Australians risk new restrictions as early as Thursday, as authorities race to trace visitors to the third coronavirus exposure site.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens warned he was actively considering new restrictions similar to those he imposed a fortnight ago as a first step, along with a possible new QR code crackdown.

In a “harsh and stark warning” based on SA Health advice, Mr Stevens said a meeting Thursday would consider new bans that may restrict public activities, cut licensed venue density, ban public drinking and dancing, cap home gatherings and impose harder Victorian border measures.

“I’m very concerned,” he told The Advertiser.

“We’ve reached a really good point in South Australia where we are probably one of the most relaxed states when it comes to Covid restrictions and that’s at risk at the moment and I don’t want to see us having to take those steps.”

Mr Stevens imposed new restrictions on travellers from Greater Melbourne to be tested and not visit high-risk sites, including nursing homes or hospitals until a negative result.

Mandatory testing of truck and freight drivers was also due to come into force at midnight.

The Shell service station in Tailem Bend that has been named as an exposure site. Picture: The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

Mr Stevens said authorities were monitoring “on an hourly basis” a new outbreak in Victoria sparked by the crew, two of whom have the highly contagious Delta strain and third is showing symptoms of illness.

He urged anyone at the Geelong v Carlton game at the MCG last Saturday to get tested.

Mr Stevens, who authorises legal directions as state Covid co-ordinator, warned people must follow rules such as social distancing, check in with QR codes and get tested with even the mildest of symptoms.

“I’ve come out of an SA Health meeting and I think there’s quite a strong warning to the community that we all need to be doing our part to make sure we stay where we are,” he said. “I can’t promise that’s the case going forward.

“There are active considerations in relation to further restrictions on public activities.

“I don’t want to take that step but we need to know that the community is working with us to minimise the risk of having to do that.

“This is an alarm bell for everyone to get on board.”

SA Health is investigating a possible fourth exposure site along the Dukes Highway, where the crew stopped early on Friday as they transported a western Sydney family of four’s belongings to McLaren Vale. That family has tested negative and are in quarantine.

Police commissioner Grant Stevens. Picture: Matt Loxton

SA Health identified the Tailem Bend Shell petrol station, on the highway, as the first exposure site, along with the adjacent Coolabah Tree cafe, where the crew visited last Friday night.

At least 118 people who visited between 5.20pm and 7pm last Friday are in isolation and have negative results.

Mr Stevens said there were 25 QR code check-ins at those sites despite 76 credit card transactions recorded.

“This for me is a stark reminder to people that … clearly there’s more that can be done,” he said. “It’s absolutely critical if we have a situation like Tailem Bend (for) getting on top of people who may have been exposed as quickly as possible.

“My worry is if people take an ambivalent approach to when they check-in. I know it’s an inconvenience but if we don’t do this were leaving ourselves exposed to a risk that we will face harsher restrictions because we can’t get on top of a possible outbreak.”

The Covid testing station in Tailem Bend on Tuesday. Picture: The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

The Shell service station and the cafe were named as “high risk” exposure sites on Tuesday tafter it was discovered the removalists stopped there between 5.20pm and 7pm on Friday July 9.

The removalists had travelled into SA from Victoria to relocate a family moving to McLaren Vale from Western Sydney.

The crew spent five hours with the family but no members of the family are showing symptoms and all have so far tested negative.

It comes as Victoria recorded seven new cases on Wednesday – four of those from the Ariele Apartment complex in Maribyrnong, which was visited by the infected NSW removalists on July 8 before they came to SA. However, on Thursday, no new cases were recorded.

Authorities revealed one of two workers at the service station were experiencing symptoms but on Wednesday, Premier Steven Marshall said both workers and all members of their households had tested negative to the virus.

“All of the close contacts there have now returned their tests and we’re all breathing a sigh of relief, they are negative,” Mr Marshall said.

He said those people would remain in quarantine for 14 days and SA was “not out of the woods yet”.

“Overnight, all of those tests came back negative. We do know though that the incubation period for this disease can be up to or even longer than 14 days.”

Those who visited the Shell service station and cafe between 5.20pm and 7pm on July 9, including bathrooms, must immediately isolate for a fortnight from that time and have mandatory testing on days one, five and day 13.

QR code data revealed that more than 30 people had checked into the service station and cafe during the potential exposure period but on Tuesday but authorities on asked anyone who visited the site, but did not check in, to come forward.

As a result of that call, 16 people have contacted SA Health to say they’d been at the Tailem Bend site while at least 60 are being risk assessed. All are in quarantine.

The latest developments come as the NSW crisis worsens, with 97 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday as an extension to greater Sydney’s lockdown looms.

While the crew was at the sites between 5.39pm and 6.24pm, SA Health increased the exposure times as part of its contact tracing efforts.

Using QR code data, contact tracers on Tuesday ordered at least 32 close contacts linked to the Tailem Bend sites – 19 in the station and 13 in the cafe – be urgently tested. These included two workers, one of whom was showing symptoms of illness.

South Australia recorded one new case on Wednesday, in a medi-hotel.

The case was man in his 40s who was across from the room of a person with a historic positive case that was reported on July 4. Both have been move to Tom’s Court and the other five people on that floor of the hotel have been tested and put into additional 14 day quarantine while authorities investigate the origin of the case.

Meanwhile, South Australia’s borders will reopen to all of Queensland at the end of the week.

Level 3 restrictions will come into place for the southeast of Queensland from one minute past midnight on Friday.