Spurrier responds to plea for hospo workers to be given essential worker status as Covid case numbers to peak by mid-April

SA hospitality workers are pleading to be classified as essential workers so that they can still work if they are a close Covid contact, amid predictions that cases are about to peak.

Close contacts working in hospitality should be permitted to attend work ahead of an expected surge in Covid cases in South Australia that could wipe out staff for Easter, the industry leader says.

According to modelling, case numbers will peak in early April to more than 7000 a day in the first week of April if current restrictions remain, meaning thousands could be in isolation for the start of Easter.

The forecasted surge has prompted calls from the Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne to class tourism and hospitality workers as essential to avoid venue closures during Easter.

Professor Nicola Spurrier said she felt for hospitality workers.

“We really need to have a look at the criticality of that in terms of our whole society’s functioning, so I am reviewing that at the moment as our case numbers go up with a really particular focus on those essential industries that keep things ticking over,” Prof Spurrier said on ABC radio on Friday.

“I do certainly have sympathy for hospitality.”

“The challenge will be that we actually have enough staff to deliver the service,” Mr Horne told The Advertiser.

Ian Horne, AHA SA general manager. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Essential workers including in health are able to attend work as a close contact if they provide a negative RAT and are asymptomatic.

“The RAT is a key component to it, and I suspect that many if not most employers would willingly take on that responsibility if it meant continuing to maintain a level of services to their paying customers,” he said.

He urged the state’s emergency management council to consider making the allowance at their next meeting.

Cases are expected to plateau steadily from mid-April, down to about 3000 a day by the end of the month according to the modelling.

“The modelling shows us that we should be starting to come down the other side of that peak by about the 9th or 10th, 11th of April,” Mr Stevens told ABC Radio Adelaide on Thursday.

“So we’re aiming for probably the first week of April to see that peak and then we should start to come down the other side, and I hope that plays out that way.

“There’s always that qualification that this is mathematical modelling that’s based on a whole range of variables and its served us pretty well so far and its been quite accurate in terms of how things have played out.”

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Premier Peter Malinauskas said last week he would like to see SA’s mask mandate scrapped from April 14 – days after the expected caseload peak.

Mr Stevens said decisions regarding Covid restrictions and vaccination mandates were based on the modelling, which authorities were comfortable relying on.

The surge in cases is thought to be due to a new more contagious Omicron sub-variant, as well as an increase in interactions following substantial easing of Covid restrictions.

It comes as vaccination mandates for ride share drivers, public transport workers, and teachers were yesterday scrapped.

A spokesperson for the government said “the Cabinet’s Emergency Management Council (EMC) is regularly reviewing Covid-19 rules and will seek to safely ease the rules when the opportunity arises.”

A spokeswoman for SA Health thanked South Australians for quarantining, while confirming that tracking and tracing close contacts was no longer done.