Five more SA exposure sites added but wastewater tests negative

More than 450 people from dozens of exposure sites are in quarantine after infected truckies drove through SA. But there are no community cases.

South Australia has managed to avoid any new community Covid cases despite multiple truckies testing positive in recent days.

A total of 462 contacts have been identified and contacted from all exposure locations, and are in quarantine, with 86 per cent having received a negative result so far.

Four cases have been added to the state tally for a total of 875, but these include two truckies announced on Wednesday, men aged in their 20s and 30s, who acquired their infections interstate and spent time in the community in South Australia while infectious.

Both cases have since returned to NSW.

A further two cases, women in their 30s and 40s, acquired their infection overseas and have been in a medi-hotel since their arrival.

One is a historical case and is not considered active.

A woman in her 40s who was transferred from Broken Hill remains at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a stable condition.

Further wastewater testing has been undertaken from the B04 catchment in Salisbury and C03 catchment in Christies Beach and both have returned a negative test.

SA has five active cases, and vaccinations have reached a total of 1,284,780.

Five new exposure sites

Five new Covid exposure sites in SA have been listed overnight, after five infectious truck drivers travelled through the state in a week, putting the state’s health chiefs on high alert for the Delta strain.

In developments she warned were a “very real risk” to SA, chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier revealed two more interstate truckies had tested positive on Wednesday.

Five more exposure sites were added on Wednesday night, at Wingfield, Tailem Bend and Pinnaroo. See the details in the exposure sites full list below.

Almost 400 people linked to nearly two dozen exposure sites are in quarantine, with more expected to follow suit.

But in good news on Thursday morning, Professor Spurrier said repeat wastewater samples undertaken on Wednesday had come back as negative.

The samples in Adelaide’s north and south had been of concern after routine tests detected two Covid-positive results.

The first result was in the northern suburbs around Salisbury, where SA Health had records of a patient. The other was in Adelaide’s south, around Hallett Cove and Morphett Vale, but no known cases have been recorded there.

“It’s probably because we’ve had somebody who’s passed through that area that was an old case and was shedding … but we’ll continue to monitor that site, as indeed we do all the sites, and we are, as people realise, on high alert,” Prof Spurrier told ABC Radio Adelaide.

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Senior government sources said no discussions about lockdown or any new restrictions had occurred, but authorities would closely monitor developments over coming days.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said there would be no further easing of restrictions before Father’s Day, with the Transition Committee next meeting on Tuesday.

“It’s not like it’s Mother’s Day,” he quipped on ABC Adelaide radio.

“Dads will still get socks and jocks and cook the barbecue but will still be restricted to 20 people at home.”

He revealed he had “no specific criteria” to open the state and “can’t answer” when it would open, noting that when vaccination reached 70 per cent of eligible people, officials would look at what could be relaxed - but it all still hinged on health advice.

He stressed that SAPOL was in continuous talks with the trucking industry and service station operators on how to improve safety measures in the wake of interstate drivers testing positive, while noting freight delivery was essential for the economy.

On Wednesday, the state’s transport sector warned hundreds of SA truck drivers – and thousands across Australia – could quit if mandatory vaccinations were imposed.

In a hastily convened late afternoon briefing on Wednesday, Professor Spurrier said it was too early to record community transmission after five drivers tested positive in six days. She urged people to get tested when experiencing even mild illness symptoms and to get vaccinated.

Trucks cross the border at the Princes Highway checkpoint near Mount Gambier on Wednesday. Picture: Jessica Ball

“This is a real situation … it’s a very real risk for everybody,” Professor Spurrier said. “Really, we are under extreme time pressure here to protect the South Australian community.

“We want to give ourselves every chance of being able to get on top of it.

“We don’t have any community transmission (but) we’ve now had five positive cases in truck drivers in the past six days.

“We had a subsequent truck driver, a third driver, yesterday. We’ve also had another truck driver that I was told about this morning and indeed a fifth truck driver around lunchtime today.”

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She said all truck drivers were wearing masks and getting tested as directed, but did not know if they were vaccinated.

Meanwhile, SA Health contact tracers were scrambling to trace the latest truckies’ travels, including at truckstops and businesses in Adelaide and Tailem Bend.

At least four exposure sites are linked to the first Victorian-based driver, aged in his 20s, who had also travelled through NSW.

SA Health is tracking up to 144 people linked to exposure sites across South Australian towns visited by the third infectious truckie. Forty are in isolation.

Authorities are interviewing the fifth driver and reviewing CCTV, QR codes and credit card details.

Another 16 exposure sites are linked to three other infectious truckies – two from Perth and one from NSW – who visited Adelaide, Port Wakefield, Port Augusta, Ceduna and Nundroo, near the WA border. Freight drivers are deemed essential workers and can cross hard borders.

SA Police this week reversed a decision forcing drivers to have at least one Covid-19 jab by September 24.

After talks with SA Health, SA Road Transport Association executive officer Steve Shearer said: “I’ve had a lot of operators telling me drivers are telling them that if it becomes mandatory they’ll just walk away”.

Mandatory jabs are being discussed at national cabinet, and are also expected to be considered in SA.

Alerts have already been issued to visitors to a warehouse at Gepps Cross, in Adelaide’s north and one of SA’s busiest roadhouses at Port Wakefield where a NSW truckie travelled on Monday.

Another 14 sites at Port Augusta, Ceduna and Nundroo, near the WA border, are linked with a pair of infectious Perth truckies, aged 23 and 29, who travelled through SA on two trips last week.

Of those identified as close, or secondary contacts, almost three quarters have returned negative tests.

Speaking before the cases emerged on Wednesday, Premier Steven Marshall said the latest scare was a timely reminder to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

“It’s going to be like this for some time until we get that vaccination rate much higher than it is at the moment,” he said.

“It doesn’t take much to set off a cluster … but SA Health, working with the people of South Australia, have been able to bring that under control.”