New COVID hotel fortress for international arrivals

Another Adelaide CBD hotel has been turned into a COVID quarantine hot spot where new arrivals – including 140 people from international flights today – will spend their isolation.

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Peppers Hotel has been turned into a “medi-hotel” where new arrivals will spend their quarantine.

The Sunday Mail revealed at the weekend how it was the third quarantine hotels now in Adelaide’s CBD.

On Tuesday police blocked off Bentham St, off Waymouth St, as bus loads of people, who recently arrived via Adelaide Airport, were unloaded.

Decked out in protective gear, police and SA Health secured the street as the new arrivals entered the hotel.

More than 140 Australians landed in Adelaide on a repatriated flight from India this morning.

The Air India plane touched down just after midday from New Delhi, with 149 passengers.

Earlier, a commercial Singapore Airlines flight arrived in SA with 123 passengers.

Passengers were taken to the hotels for two weeks of quarantine.

Each person was tested for COVID-19.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said: “Those people have been taken into supervised quarantine and I’ve been advised that we’ve had no issues with that – it’s been a smooth operation.”

NEW TESTING STATIONS

The SA Government has also announced a further ramping up of testing facilities in response to increased demand for the service. A new drive-through facility will open in Victoria Park on Wednesday, and new heavy vehicle testing facilities will be set up in Port Augusta and Tailem Bend.

Half a dozen workers were spotted at Victoria Park on Tuesday morning assembling the multi-lane station, taking up almost the entire concrete pad used by V8 race teams at the Adelaide 500.

It comes after metropolitan clinics faced “significant demand” on Monday.

Some clinics had waiting times of up to six hours while others, including key site Flinders Medical Centre, were forced to turn away patients because of overwhelming questions.

Mr Wade said he was “very thankful to the people of South Australia for accepting the call to get tested”.

“Obviously that is putting pressure on our capacity, and I thank people for their patience – people appreciate that this is a real challenge for our state,” he said.

“I’d also like to pay tribute to the SA Pathology staff who, despite this increased demand, continue to get the tests turned around in 24 hours.”