Sweeping six-day lockdown across SA to stop Parafield cluster
The Premier has announced a six-day lockdown across the state and widespread restrictions to prevent the Parafield cluster growing. Replay the press conference here.
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Premier Steven Marshall has introduced a six-day lockdown for SA as a circuit breaker to stop the Parafield COVID-19 cluster growing.
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There have been two more cases linked to the cluster but SA chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier says the COVID strain has a very short incubation period and many carriers have no symptoms.
It is breeding very rapidly, she said, and without serious lockdowns, “then we’re going to be in this for the long haul and it would be like the experience in Victoria”.
Mr Marshall said said 6000 tests were undertaken on Tuesday, and 5000 on Monday.
Mr Marshall said the current situation with high numbers of testing was “extraordinary” and is asking for patience from people who have been turned away from testing.
“We are asking people of South Australia to work with us in this situation.”
‘If we continue to act like this, we will get on top of this cluster.”
He also sympthaised with guests in extended quarantine at the Pepper’s Hotel.
“Quite frankly being in a room for 14 days would be horrible, being in there any longer would be difficult.”
Also this morning, NSW has advised its residents to delay non-essential travel to South Australia.
However, the Northern Territory this morning downgraded its border closure to South Australia to restrict travel to only Adelaide and the surrounding areas. Two days after the NT slammed its borders shut, territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the hot spot would be reduced from the whole state to only 20 local government areas of Adelaide and surrounding suburbs.
It comes as SA Health overnight identified close to 50 potential locations where COVID-19 could have been transmitted, as a northern suburbs cluster reaches 20 cases.
The department’s most recent update, at midnight on Tuesday night, identified the Woodville Pizza Bar as a high risk location – directing any visitors or customers from November 6-16 to self-quarantine for two weeks and seek testing.
One of the active cases is believed to be a worker at the pizza bar.
âš ï¸COVID-19 Health Alert 17 Nov 2020 (11.59pm)âš ï¸
— SA Health (@SAHealth) November 17, 2020
Anyone who visited or got takeaway (incl. delivery) from the Woodville Pizza Bar on 6 – 16 Nov must immediately self-quarantine for 14 days & seek testing. This includes people who live with you.
More info: https://t.co/DgtxIqU3s6 pic.twitter.com/QveoAXjHlJ
Four new coronavirus cases were linked to the Parafield cluster on Tuesday, and SA Health contact tracers are interviewing a fifth infectious patient to confirm any links with the cluster.
Public health chiefs were awaiting test results on 14 other cases – their details unknown – as the state totals 34 active cases.
Numerous other locations and bus routes have been identified by contact tracers as potentially infectious.
Visitors to several of these places – detailed above – have been asked by SA Health to self-isolate for two weeks and to safely seek testing for COVID-19 as soon as possible.
More than 4000 close contacts are already quarantining at home and medi-hotels.
The department told anyone who visited Thomas More College, Salisbury Downs and Roma Mitchell Secondary College, Gepps Cross, on November 12 or 13, or people who live with them, to “self-quarantine immediately for 14 days and seek testing”.
Self-quarantine and compulsory testing was also ordered for anyone who visited Mawson Lakes School and Preschool, on November 11 to 13 and the Lyell McEwin Hospital Emergency Department between 5.30pm on November 13 to 8am on November 14.
The department earlier on Tuesday told people who were at the Aquadome swimming complex at Elizabeth between 11am and 1.30pm on November 14 also to begin immediate self-isolation and seek testing.
NOTE: If you visited any of the locations on the map with a red market, you must immediately self-quarantine and seek testing as soon as possible. Further information.
People who were at the Holy Family Catholic School, Parafield Gardens, and Goodstart Early Learning Child Care Centre, Parafield Gardens, on November 13 were told to self-quarantine for 14 days and only seek testing if symptoms developed.
SA Police also used special powers on Tuesday night to order anyone who had spent time at Peppers Hotel in Waymouth St between midnight on November 15 and November 16 to immediately enter self-isolation.
The order does not apply to emergency response team members such as SA Health staff, police and soldiers who entered the hotel while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).
Those affected include hotel workers, contractors, guests, delivery drivers and private security guards.
Meanwhile, in an email to staff late on Tuesday night, Flinders deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Clare Pollock said an infectious student attended the Intensive English Language Institute in “recent days”.
No staff or students there have been identified as close contacts, she said.
“We are working closely with SA Health and IELI as further information emerges,” she wrote.
“At this stage no Flinders staff or student has been identified as a close contact and there are no confirmed cases amongst Flinders University staff or students. “
She said out of an abundance of caution, effective immediately, all buildings on the Sturt Campus are closed while deep cleaning occurs.
The campus is shut until 8am Monday at this stage.
“This closure includes IELI itself as well as Health2Go, FISC, Sturt Library and the Sturt Café,” she said.
“We are working with SA Health and IELI to ensure that all locations identified are deep cleaned.”
Five Adelaide schools are also closed.
South Australia is “not out of the woods yet” as four new coronavirus cases were linked on Tuesday to the growing Parafield cluster, Premier Steven Marshall has warned.
Mr Marshall described the outbreak – which erupted from a city medi-hotel and now totals at least 20 confirmed cases – as a “very nasty cluster”.
More resources were thrown at overwhelmed testing clinics that recorded near record levels.
Tests in SA since the pandemic started are expected to hit more than 600,000 on Wednesday.
A day after imposing a raft of new bans on gatherings, public activities and venue density, Mr Marshall said it was too early to rule out more restrictions if the crisis deteriorates.
“We are going to do everything we can to stop this disease in its tracks, and reducing mobility is a very important part of it,” he said. “We are asking everyone to abide by the current restrictions.”
The new patients, aged from their teens to their 50s, included a Anglicare aged-care worker at Brompton. A Peppers medi-hotel security guard has infected his three children – two teenagers and another in their 20s. One of the teens attends Roma Mitchell Secondary College, Gepps Cross.
It has now be closed for the second time in three months after the northern suburbs girls’ high school shut during August’s Thebarton cluster.
The Parafield cluster’s source is a female cleaner at the city’s Peppers medi-hotel. The woman, aged in her 50s, is believed to have contracted the virus from a surface in the Waymouth Street hotel.
Blood tests traced the virus strain to an expatriate who returned from Britain on November 2. The cleaner, who also worked at the Mantra Hotel on Frome Street, then infected her husband, aged in his 60s, and her parents before it spread at a big family event.
Chief public health officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier urged anyone with even mild symptoms to get tested and advised more mask use.
“I’m not going to underestimate the concern that I’ve got about this,” she said.
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