Police Commissioner Grant Stevens pledges to keep South Australian borders open for Christmas

Interstate travel for Christmas has been all but guaranteed, with the state’s top Covid authorities promising to keep borders open.

Premier Steven Marshall and Police Commissioner Grant Steven have jointly vowed SA’s borders will remain open indefinitely, providing certainty for interstate travel to Christmas and beyond.

Mr Stevens, the state’s Covid commander, has publicly committed to only closing the borders again in extreme circumstances, such as an uncontrolled outbreak of variants Omicron and Delta.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mail, Mr Stevens said it was important people knew they would be able to travel to visit relatives and friends for Christmas either in SA or interstate.

“We want to give people as much certainty as possible,” he said.

Mr Stevens said he had discussed keeping the borders open on Friday with chief medical officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier.

“In my discussions with SA Health, we came to the position that we are going to maintain our borders as they currently are,” he said.

“We are keeping the borders open.”

South Australia’s state emergency co-ordinator, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has said the state’s borders will remain open. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Mr Stevens said interstate travel restrictions were further eased on Friday with the removal of the requirement for visitors to have Covid tests and then quarantine until they received negative results.

“This has been a disincentive for some people to travel,” he said.

“Interstate arrivals from NSW, Victoria and the ACT still need to have a Covid test but they no longer have to isolate until they get a negative result before they can move around.

“This requirement was having a negative impact on people wanting to come to South Australia and making them reluctant to make arrangements.”

Mr Stevens said he was confident that if anyone came into South Australia with Covid, they would be quickly identified through testing and located by contact tracers.

“We are obliged to manage the risk but we are not going to avoid it completely,” he said.

“If we took steps to avoid it completely, then we would be in a completely different scenario.”

Mr Marshall welcomed the decision to keep the borders open indefinitely.

“People need certainty in the lead-up to Christmas, we have now provided that certainty,” he said.

“There will be no more statewide lockdowns; there will be no more lockouts.”

Premier Steven Marshall at a ceremony on Saturday to mark the opening of Happy Valley Reservoir. Picture Dean Martin

Mr Marshall said he had been criticised by his political opponents for advocating for the reopening of the state’s borders.

Speculation that it would cause a flood of new Covid cases had proven to be false, he said.

“The Labor Party ran around telling people that opening the borders would be a disaster and our health system would be overrun,” he said.

“We have now been open for almost three weeks and we have around only 60 cases, not the thousands that Labor were fearmongering with.”

Mr Marshall said the commitment to keep the borders open came as latest figures show more than 84 per cent of South Australians had been double vaccinated.

“People wanting to come to SA or go interstate have now been provided with the level of confidence they were waiting for,” he said.

“We have got to learn to with this and that is now possible because of the great work that all South Australians have done by getting vaccinated.”

Mr Marshall received a rousing cheer when he first committed to keeping the borders open during a Property Council business luncheon at Adelaide Oval on Friday, attended by 1300 people not wearing masks because it was held outdoors.

“It was probably the biggest business event held in Australia this year,” he said.

“It is clear evidence of the excellent job South Australia has done in dealing with Covid.”

There were seven new cases of COVID-19 reported by SA Health on Saturday – three of them locally acquired.

The popular Bakery on O’Connell in North Adelaide has been identified as a Covid exposure site. Picture: The Advertiser

Suspected Omicron cases remain at two, with genetic testing results expected within the next 24 hours.

Saturday’s new cases are four men aged between and 20 and 40, and three women between the ages of 20 and 60.

One of the cases acquired the virus interstate, while three cases acquired their infection locally – all are known contacts of previously reported cases.

The remaining three cases were acquired locally but are as yet unlinked to other known cases.

One case is linked to the Norwood cluster, taking the total in that cluster to 33 cases.

Five of Saturday’s new cases were vaccinated.

A man in his 30s has been transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a stable condition.

Another man in his 30s, and a woman in her 50s remain in the RAH in a stable condition.

A high risk close contact exposure site associated with a positive case has been identified at the Bakery on O’Connell in North Adelaide on December 7 from 11.20pm to 12.50am on December 8.

New close contact exposure locations are the No. 9 Karaoke Bar (9pm December 4 to 1.15am December 5) and the McDonalds at Woodville South (December 8 from 1.30pm to 2pm).

SA has recorded 76 cases have been reported since borders were reopened on November 23.

The state has a total of 54 active cases.

On Saturday, 13,675 Covid tests were taken.

SA has recorded a total of 998 cases to date.