Greater Brisbane arrivals in SA to quarantine for 14 days from midnight Friday

Anyone who has arrived from Brisbane in the past five days must get tested for COVID-19 and self-isolate immediately, SA Health has announced.

SA Health has changed its rules for travellers from Queensland just hours after they were first announced.

Greater Brisbane has been declared a COVID hotspot and will go into a strict three-day lockdown from 6pm tonight to fight an outbreak of a UK mutant strain.

Earlier today, it was announced that all arrivals into SA from the greater Brisbane area, including Logan, Redlands, Moreton Bay and Ipswich, from midnight tonight will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said midnight had been chosen to allow a “small window” for people already on their way to SA to avoid cases where people were forced to go back immediately to Queensland.

Eight flights from Brisbane were scheduled land at Adelaide Airport today – one landed during the initial announcement.

Today’s arrivals were told they had to be tested on arrival and again on day five and day 12, but did not have to self-isolate.

Anyone who had travelled into SA from the hotspot area from January 2-7 was required to get a COVID test but not isolate, according to that announcement.

But just before 6pm, SA Health issued a revised directive. Now, today’s arrivals must isolate after their first test until they get a negative result. They will not need to isolate after subsequent tests.

They must also not attend any event with a COVID management plan or attendance of more than 1000 people, such as a festival.

Those who arrived from January 2-7 must also now isolate after their first test – but not their second – and must not attend large events.

SA has three new cases today, two men in their 40s and 60s and a woman in her 30s, all in medi-hotels and recent overseas arrivals. However, testing has shown there are two cases of the UK mutant variant in SA in medi-hotels – one may be an old case, SA chief public health officer Prof Spurrier said.

Premier Steven Marshall said at the initial announcement: “(Brisbane) Premier Palaszczuk has asked all other states to declare those areas as a hotspot and we have agreed to that on a national basis.

“Anybody who has been in the Greater Brisbane area will receive an SMS message from SA Health today requiring them to go and get themselves tested.

“We will clearly be looking very closely at this case over the next three days.”

Passengers wait to board a plane to Brisbane at Adelaide Airport after the announcement that the city is going into a three-day lockdown. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Additional testing teams from SA Health will be placed at Adelaide Airport from today to swab arriving passengers.

Six border testing checkpoints will be reopened, including ones at Marla and Marree, to control border crossings from NSW and Queensland.

Pre-flight testing has been adopted by the national Cabinet, as first proposed by Mr Marshall.

As well, masks will now be mandatory on all domestic and international flights, he said, adding SA will not change caps on overseas arrivals.

Australia’s international arrivals cap will be halved in New South Wales, Western Australia, and Queensland.

Daily saliva testing will now be required for quarantine workers across Australia.

Prof Spurrier reminded the community not to become complacent and advised South Australians to reconsider travelling to Queensland.

“I want South Australia to understand that while there is that issue that is very concerning because we‘ve got somebody who has been out in the Queensland community with that particular variant, we do actually have that variant here in our own state,” she said.

She also said SA Health was monitoring the situation in Victoria closely but said officials were doing well to get the Avalon outbreak under control.

Prof Spurrier herself said she was reconsidering a holiday planned to the Great Barrier Reef later this month.

Mr Marshall said the Brisbane lockdown was similar to the Parafield cluster: “I think most people now appreciate that going hard and going early is really the benchmark for dealing with these things.”

“If we need to take any further action with regards to border restrictions with Queensland, then we will have no hesitation in calling a press conference in doing that immediately.”

Tasmania declared Greater Brisbane a hotspot and effectively closed its borders to the city following Queensland’s lockdown announcement this morning.

Anyone who arrives in Tasmania from today who has been in Brisbane since January 2 must quarantine for 14 days.

SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier. Picture: Mike Burton

From 6pm tonight greater Brisbane will enter into a strict lockdown for three days in an effort to contain the spread of a mutated UK strain of COVID-19.

The strain, which is wreaking havoc across the UK and has seeped into Europe, is more contagious and believed to have escaped a medi-hotel in Brisbane.

A cleaner aged in her 20s was in the community for several days before she developed symptoms and tested positive to COVID-19.

Genome analysis of the virus showed she had contracted the mutated strain of the disease.

Queensland health authorities have already traced 79 close contacts with the cleaner who did not attend any cafes or restaurants while contagious.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Brisbane was ‘going hard and going early’ to stop the spread of this ‘incredibly contagious virus’.

“It is going to be tough on everyone for these three days. What we are seeing in the UK at the moment and other places around the world is high rates of infection from this particular strain,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“There are no second chances with this pandemic. Three days is better than 30.”