No changes to SA borders with NSW, ACT and Victoria over Omicron Covid-19 strain

SA remains ‘extraordinarily concerned’ about the spread of the Omicron variant in the eastern states but will not close borders. Stricter testing protocols will be introduced. Watch a replay of today’s announcement.

South Australia remains ‘extraordinarily concerned’ about the spread of the Omicron variant in the eastern states, but SA will not close its borders to NSW, the ACT and Victoria, Premier Steven Marshall announced today.

Mr Marshall said authorities remained “extraordinarily concerned” but there would be no border changes at this stage.

However, the Premier said, stricter testing protocols, or “speed bumps”, would be put in place for interstate arrivals in a bid to keep the variant out of the state.

“We don’t know enough about the Omicron variant at this stage so we are being extremely cautious,” he said.

Those arriving from NSW, Victoria and the ACT must have a test on arrival and isolate until they get their result.

Mr Marshall said test results were being turned around within four to five hours on average. Those arrivals must also have a test on Day 6 if they plan to be in SA for longer than six days.

Authorities had already announced quarantine for international arrivals will go back to 14 days.

No changes have been made to border bubble communities.

Mr Marshall said authorities were monitoring the situation daily and said all options were on the table, including future border changes.

Police Commissioner, and State Coordinator, Grant Stevens confirmed Chief Public Health Officer Prof Nicola Spurrier had asked to close the borders until more information about the new variant surfaces.

“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.

“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 Commission with all the available facts and that a hard border closure “would be the most risk averse situation”.

“There’s a range of people on the Directions Committee and I am not going to go through who decided to provide which bit of information,” Prof Spurrier said.

“It’s my job to provide the information that’s at hand,” she said.

“Then our Directions Committee will judge what risk we would have in South Australia for having that here versus the fact that we have moved on in our community.

“We are getting extremely well vaccinated, we are enjoying the fact we can now travel back and forwards interstate and have our relatives visit here, particularly as we come up to Christmas.”

Prof Spurrier said SA authorities had been in touch with their counterparts in South Africa, where Omicron was “rapidly” becoming the dominant variant.

She said “fulsome” data about the infectiousness and severity of the variant was “a number of months” away.

However, researchers would be carrying out tests in the next two weeks to determine the effectiveness of the current vaccines against the new variant.

“There is some sense it’s not as severe as possibly they (African authorities) had anticipated but really this is an unknown at the moment.

“Until the whole world is vaccinated we will have an opportunity to have variants of concerns because this is the function of having a large outbreak.

“We will not get over this pandemic until every single person has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.”

Senior government sources said authorities were “really concerned” about “lax” international quarantine rules in NSW and Victoria and the Sydney Omicron outbreak.

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier has twice in the past week requested borders be closed but no changes were made.

NSW Health is investigating a cluster at Regents Park Christian School, in western Sydney, where 13 Covid-19 cases have been identified.

Genomic sequencing testing has found three cases of the Omicron strain, which originated in southern Africa before spreading around the globe. Urgent testing is under way on another 10 cases. A source has not yet been found.

Grant Stevens, Health Minister Stephen Wade, Steven Marshall and Nicola Spurrier at the Covid Press Conference at Old Parliament House on December 2. Picture Simon Cross

ACT Health last night also announced a local vaccinated patient has Omicron despite not travelling overseas. Early data shows the strain could be milder, but more infectious, than the Delta variant.

SA Health on Friday revealed a woman in her 30s with an “unknown source of infection” had spent time in Port Noarlunga. It sparked an urgent alert for the Onkaparinga Council area in Adelaide’s outer south, including Port Noarlunga and Reynella, to get tested for even the mildest of Covid symptoms.

SA Health’s Communicable Disease Control Branch is scrambling to identify her mystery infection after contact tracers failed to establish where she fell ill.

It is the first mysterious community transmission case since April 15 last year and comes 10 days after borders reopened to the eastern states.

There have been 35 cases since borders opened on November 23 – 19 linked to a cluster in Norwood. At least two cases are Indigenous.

The cluster grew by one on Friday, a day after 16 cases emerged, including former premier Jay Weatherill.

SA Health is investigating if Friday’s case, a man in his 50s who attended the Henley High School 40-year reunion, contracted the virus interstate.

As another exposure site emerged at a children’s play event at Glenelg, SA Health’s website temporarily crashed. The exposure time for a Marion gym was reduced from 13 hours to one – a mistake blamed on a typo.

WA’s border, meanwhile, closed at 12am on Saturday while NT authorities announced a travel crackdown.

Commonwealth data showed that on Friday, SA hit the milestone of having 90 per cent of eligible adults older than 16 having had their first jab.