SA Transition Committee to keep NSW borders open despite COVID-19 clusters
The state’s border with NSW – which recorded 10 new COVID infections on Friday – will stay open, although South Australians are being warned they may need to be “flexible” with travel.
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South Australia’s borders with NSW will remain open despite concerns surrounding two COVID-19 clusters in Sydney.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the state’s Transition Committee looked closely at the situation at its meeting on Friday.
He said while there were no changes to directions, people were encouraged to be flexible with their travel.
“The indicators are that they're on top of it,“ Commissioner Stevens said
Premier Steven Marshall said he spoke to SA Health’s Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier after the meeting who advised him there would be no change to current border arrangements.
“Some people have been quite concerned about what is going on in NSW. There have been a couple of cases of community transmission in the last couple of days,” he said.
“(Professor Spurrier) has been telling me there’s been an excellent flow of data between NSW Health and SA.
“NSW are working hard to identify the epilink of those community transmission (cases) and they're making progress so Nicola Spurrier is quite happy to leave the current arrangements with the NSW border in place … although we’re obviously keeping a very close eye on this.”
Mr Marshall said while NSW seemed to be getting on top of its clusters, SA would continue to monitor the situation.
“It’s really hard to determine what that threshold should be because if you just look at the raw numbers, it doesn't give you enough information. Even looking at the number of community transmission doesn't give you the full picture. It's only when you get the detail information through from other jurisdictions that we can form a position whether or not we’d put border restrictions in place.
“We know some days we get reports of a new infection then a few days later it was a false positive or we establish the epilink. Once we’ve established that epilink, it's not nearly as worrying as that widespread community transmission as there has been in Victoria in recent months.”
NSW reported 10 new cases on Friday; with five being from hotel quarantine and the other five locally acquired which were all linked to a known case or cluster.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said four of the new locally acquired cases were associated with the private health clinic cluster; three begin household contacts of a known infection and the fourth was a co-worker of another reported case.
NSW Health authorities revealed on Thursday an asymptomatic woman who tested positive to coronavirus in NSW hosted a “social event” at her home that led to four other people being infected.
The state recorded 12 new virus cases on Thursday, which was one more than Victoria’s 11 new infections.
A public health alert was also issued after a positive coronavirus case visited the Monopole Restaurant in Potts Point.
People who travelled on the following public transport is also considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop:
- Train from Parramatta at 14:41 arriving Town Hall 15:31 on October 4
- Train from Town Hall at 17:29 arriving Kings Cross 17:50 on October 4
- Train from Artarmon at 23:18 arriving Central 23:48 on October 5
- Bus replacement from Central at 23:48 arriving Strathfield 00:15 on October 5
- Train from Strathfield at 00:15 arriving Parramatta 00:45 on October 5
- Bus 550 from Epping Station, Beecroft Rd, Stand D at 17:08 to Smith St after Phillip St, Parramatta 17:41 on October 6
- Train from Moss Vale 04:52 arriving Liverpool 07:09 on October 6
- Train from Liverpool 16:58 arriving Moss Vale 19:12 on October 6
- Train from Moss Vale 04:51 arriving Liverpool 07:08 on October 7
- Train from Campbelltown 13:31 arriving Moss Vale 15:50 on October 7
NSW Health also noted that dropping testing rates were a “concern”, and urged people with even mild symptoms to get tested.
Originally published as SA Transition Committee to keep NSW borders open despite COVID-19 clusters