Coronavirus SA: Nightclub crackdown as venues face new COVID-19 restrictions after widespread crowd problems

People returned to nightclubs last weekend for the first time in months, but so many broke social distancing rules that new ones are now being put in place.

Patrons line up to get into Red Square on Hindley Street. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

• Last week: Clubs can’t open for both drinking and dancing
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Nightclubs face new restrictions on trade that will force many to shut, in a crackdown based on evidence that some venues and patrons failed to abide by coronavirus rules last week.

The new rules came just days after clubs were given the all-clear to reopen and revellers hit clubs in large numbers for the first time in months.

Police officers scrutinised more than 120 nightclubs, hotels and live music venues to check whether patrons were social distancing and if any people drinking were dancing.

Venues could offer drinking or dancing, but not both.

The State Government’s Transition Committee was handed evidence on Tuesday that showed a “total disregard” for social distancing and proper hygiene, as well as a lack of crowd control outside venues.

Based on its recommendations, Police Commissioner and state co-ordinator Grant Stevens authorised the new “high risk” venue restrictions.

Backed by chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier, no venue can operate as a nightclub until it has a special COVID-19-safe “management” plan approved.

But a template for such plans will not be ready until Friday at the earliest, SA Health said.

And it will likely be weeks before they can be approved. In the meantime, some clubs will be able to operate as bars.

Hamish Barry with Dog and Duck owner Dave O'Connell last week, when the rule was against drinking and dancing at the same time. Picture: Matt Loxton

One licensed venue was slapped with a formal caution over the weekend. Police fined two people and formally cautioned nine others on Friday, and fined one person on Saturday night. Denying it was a “mistake” to previously relax nightclub rules, Mr Stevens said: “We were quite concerned about some of the activities we saw in the CBD over the course of the weekend.

“In some respects, there was a total disregard for social distancing, and given the nature of this virus and the ease in which it spreads in that type of context, the decision to restrict nightclub activity … is a very sound one.”

Lamenting being seen as the “fun police”, Professor Spurrier said approval times for management plans depended on complexity.

“I may have grey hair, my kids call me a boomer, but I know what happens in nightclubs,” she said.

“I enjoy dancing too, but the kissing, the hugging, the getting close together with a large group of people from all over South Australia is the real risk.”

Australian Hotels Association SA boss Ian Horne said defining a nightclub was hard and new delays were “potentially horrendous”.