No guarantee on borders staying open for Christmas as SA Premier worries about Omicron threat
Queensland has ordered Adelaide visitors into quarantine and Steven Marshall won’t guarantee SA’s borders stay open, as Omicron threatens to ruin holiday plans.
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Premier Steven Marshall says he is leaving open the prospect of closing South Australia’s borders because authorities are “extraordinarily concerned” about the threat posed by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Tighter requirements for interstate visitors were imposed after a directions committee meeting on Saturday morning, which left borders open despite a closure recommendation from public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier.
People arriving from NSW, Victoria and the ACT now must have a test on arrival and isolate until they get their result, as well as have a further day-six test. This is in addition to having a negative test result within 72 hours before arrival.
The directions committee met on Saturday and Sunday – and will meet again on Monday – to reconsider border restrictions, which Mr Marshall said had “everything to do with the Omicron variant” and “nothing to do with Delta” infections in SA since borders reopened on November 23.
“We are very concerned (about Omicron). We’re meeting on a very regular basis and we don’t take any option off the table,” Mr Marshall said.
New exposure sites were revealed by SA Health on Monday as the state recorded six new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, including two linked to the Norwood cluster.
Authorities have already announced quarantine for international arrivals would return to 14 days, from seven.
It is understood Mr Marshall, who spoke to Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly on Saturday morning, and other officials were extremely reluctant to close borders, based on current information.
It is also understood senior health officials on Thursday had briefed various government departments to brace for a Sunday noon border closure. However, that did not happen and borders remain open.
Business and hotel peak bodies applauded the decision to keep borders open and urged authorities to stay the course to foster jobs, tourism and continued economic growth, stressing vaccination and not further restrictions was the pathway out of the pandemic.
But Queensland tightened border controls, requiring anyone who has been in Greater Adelaide since 1am on November 28 and arriving from 1am on Sunday to be fully vaccinated and go into 14-day home or hotel quarantine.
SA has now hit the 90 per cent mark for single-dose vaccinations of people aged 12 and over while the double-dose rate is 81.7 per cent.
Mr Stevens confirmed Professor Spurrier had asked to close borders until more information surfaced about the new variant.
“Professor Spurrier came to the directions meeting with a recommendation to close the borders, which would be the most risk-averse approach we could take,” Mr Stevens said.
“It was a consensus decision, supported by everybody in the directions committee, that we step through this as gradually as possible.”
Prof Spurrier said it would be inappropriate to reveal the details of the committee’s deliberations, except to say that it was her job to provide the directions committee with all the available facts and that a hard border closure “would be the most risk-averse situation”.
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