Premier Steven Marshall tests negative to Covid, Peter Malinauskas’ wife, kids test positive

Premier Steven Marshall has tested negative to Covid after his daughter contracted the virus. It comes as Labor leader Peter Malinauskas’ entire family tests positive.

Premier Steven Marshall has tested negative to Covid, he says in a Facebook video posted from isolation.

Mr Marshall is a close contact with daughter Georgie, 22, after dining with her on Thursday. He has no symptoms but had a PCR test at Victoria Park on Saturday and went into isolation.

It comes as Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas says his wife and three children have tested positive to Covid.

The Labor leader revealed he had Covid and was isolating last week – the same day Police Commissioner and SA’s emergency co-ordinator Grant Stevens tested positive.

On Saturday, he said in a Facebook video his family had returned positive tests.

Mr Maliauskas said he was “one of the lucky ones” who hadn’t had severe symptoms.

But he said on Saturday his wife and “all three kids” received positive tests.

“There’s every chance they got it very early on, maybe when we were in the car together to get a PCR test,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“Annabel isn’t feeling crash hot, she has cold-like symptoms, but all three kids, you wouldn’t know they’ve got it. We were all surprised when we got the message saying they were positive.

“As a parent, we worry about it – what parent wouldn’t – but we’re checking on them, on their temperatures.”

On Saturday, Mr Marshall also announced booster jabs would likely become mandatory for thousands more workers in the wake of the state’s deadliest day of the pandemic.

Mr Marshall reported five Covid-related deaths on Saturday – more in one day than our cumulative total before Omicron.

Mr Marshall also reported a record 4274 new cases on Saturday and said there were about 25,000 active cases, of which 164 were in hospital, 16 in intensive care and two on ventilators.

Mr Marshall will leave isolation on Thursday night now that he has tested negative.

“I will continue to chair the daily Covid Ready Committee meetings and continue to lead our pandemic response,” he said.

Premier Steven Marshall with chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier during a Covid press conference earlier this week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

“I thank all South Australians who are doing the right thing and isolating if they have Covid or are a close contact.”

Both Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas and Police Commissioner and SA’s emergency co-ordinator Grant Stevens have tested positive to Covid this week.

The government made the booster shot compulsory, by the end of January, for healthcare, aged care and disability workers on Friday night.

But Mr Marshall on Saturday said this direction was likely to be expanded.

“We are very strongly considering making it mandatory for the booster in other sectors as well, including childcare and the education sector,” he said.

“These are really important frontline people in South Australia and so we do definitely want to make sure that people are as protected as possible.”

The government will review the booster requirements for sectors that already require their workers to be double vaccinated. These also include police, passenger transport and Forensic Science SA staff.

Some corporations, including BHP, have also opted to implement the policy.

Recent SA Health data shows about 35 per cent of those now eligible for a booster, or 200,000 of 563,000 people, have had the jab.

There were 15,915 booster shots administered on Friday.

Mr Marshall again urged those eligible for boosters to book in for their shots, and said thousands more appointments would be made available at mass vaccination clinics, GPs and pharmacies across the state.

Announcing the latest deaths in his daily press conference, he said Saturday marked a “very sad day”.

“Obviously we’re devastated with any death in South Australia and to have five having to be reported on the same day is extraordinarily sad,” he said.

The single day number is higher than South Australia’s total of four recorded pandemic deaths that happened prior to the state’s borders opening on November 23.

The most recent deaths were a woman aged in her 50s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 70s and two women in their 90s.

There are 164 patients in hospitals, a rise of 20 from Friday, which Mr Marshall said remained “certainly within our capacity”.

The number receiving intensive care treatment was unchanged at 16 – 80 per cent of whom are unvaccinated – but those requiring ventilation rose overnight to two.

Mr Marshall said there had been a “small uptick” of two additional SA Health staff who had tested positive to the virus, taking the total number to 358 workers.

But there are a total 608 who are off the job, including those who are close contacts of cases.

“That’s 608 out of 53,000, but that number is steadily increasing and it’s one that we’re very concerned about,” Mr Marshall said.

“We want to manage (it) as closely as we possibly can.”

There were nearly 25,000 PCR tests undertaken on Friday, which was the highest number recorded this year.

Mr Marshall said that despite some reports of food supply issues, there were currently no acute shortages in South Australia.

But he said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) would discuss national issues at a meeting on Saturday and monitor the situation.

Three more Covid cases have been recorded in remote Aboriginal communities – two at Koonibba on the Far West Coast and one at Indulkana on the APY Lands.