SA venues say they are on their knees despite no cases, pop-up clinic for Pooraka
Event businesses have slammed authorities, saying the ban on dancing despite no new cases again in SA today is driving them to the wall. It comes as a new pop-up vaccination clinic is announced.
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The state has recorded no new Covid cases overnight, despite Tuesday’s revelation that a sixth infectious truckie had visited the state.
“I think the state is breathing a sigh of relief,” Premier Steven Marshall said on Wednesday morning to announce a new pop-up Pfizer vaccination clinic for Pooraka’s SA Produce Market.
The Premier said he hoped the clinic, which opens on September 21, would address a slow take-up of the Covid vaccine in the Salisbury Council area. It will take walk-ins and administer up to 1,500 doses per week.
It follows a slight easing of restrictions on Tuesday.
Couples tying the knot can now have triple the guests at their wedding but crowded dancing is still off limits.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced a new limit of 150 guests at weddings and other private gatherings, up from 50.
Stand-up drinking is now allowed at weddings but dancing remains restricted to members of the bridal party.
But event businesses say the changes don’t go far enough. Kelly Markos, who owns wedding venues Utopia @ Waterfall Gully and Glanville Hall, said people cancelled two upcoming events at her businesses within five minutes of the announcement.
“Both have been holding out, hoping for good news (on dancing restrictions),” Ms Markos said. “This honestly wasn’t any sort of easing at all.
“(Dancing) was the one restriction we are desperate to have lifted. This is the one restriction with the potential to save our last few events.”
“Guests at weddings and events are already hugging, kissing, playing games, sitting side by side to eat, standing and mingling without masks, holding hands.
“So dancing amongst these groups adds no more risk at all, but has significant benefit and would have saved many, many bookings.”
Simone Douglas, co-founder of industry group Hospo Owners Collective, said it was disappointing to see no significant changes to restrictions while crowds for this weekend’s Adelaide Oval football final were increased earlier this week.
“The hospitality sector has been left out in the cold with no material changes to restrictions and an increase in complexity and administration of their private functions,” she said.
“Business once again is left with zero certainty going into what is normally a peak trading period, and instead face restricted trade with no end in sight.”
Mr Stevens said the threat from rising Covid-19 cases in other states meant restrictions could not be eased substantially.
“We are trying to find a way to free up activities as much as possible but maintain a level of safety based on the concerns we have with NSW, ACT and Victoria, and the emerging threat we see from transport workers entering the state,” Mr Stevens said.
He said there were no changes to the state’s border restrictions.
It comes as an extra 35,000 vaccination bookings were made available at the Wayville clinic in an effort to bolster vaccine uptake.
The clinic at Adelaide Showground has more than doubled capacity from 42 vaccination stations to 96.
Mr Marshall said the increased supply of vaccinations announced nationally, including South Australia’s share of four million doses from the UK, made it possible to provide more appointments.
“Please, South Australians, when it’s your turn, when you’ve got that opportunity, go and get yourself vaccinated,” he said.
The number of South Australians in quarantine as a result of Covid-19 truckies driving through the state was 916 on Tuesday, down from 993 the previous day.
It was revealed a sixth infectious truck driver had passed through the state last week. He visited the Wingfield BP truck stop at the corner of Grand Junction and Dunstan roads. Anyone who was at the truck stop from 11pm to midnight last Thursday or 5.30am-6.45am on Friday must quarantine for 14 days and get tested immediately.
Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said she was working with the freight industry to make it easier for drivers to be tested and vaccinated. Six Covid cases among overseas returnees were reported in medi-hotels, but none were active cases.
Mr Marshall said in addition to the Wayville expansion and the newly-revealed Pooraka clinic, a pop-up clinic at the Myer Centre in the city would also deliver up to 1000 doses a week.
He said the increase was possible after extra doses of Pfizer were secured from the UK, Poland and Singapore.
He said supplies of Moderna had been delayed slightly, and were likely to come online late September.
South Australia has currently delivered 1.3 million doses of vaccine, and currently 37 per cent of those aged 16 and over have been double vaccinated.
“I think that the vaccine hesitancy we might have seen three or four months ago is really diminishing,” Mr Marshall said. “This is a disease of the unvaccinated.”
He also foreshadowed a small reduction in restrictions for weddings and other functions outside the home.
Quarantine at home – with police escort
People offered exemptions to enter South Australia from NSW are being escorted by police from the border to their quarantine address in extreme measures to protect the community.
Commissioner and state co-ordinator Grant Stevens confirmed people with an approved property to undertake 14 days supervised home quarantine were being met at the border by police.
Patrols then follow the drivers to ensure they reach their desired location without breaching restrictions or risking community transmission.
“We are escorting them (exempt people) from the border to their home address, and that’s to ensure the safety of the South Australian community,” Mr Stevens said.
He said the system was not a drain on resources.
“We don’t just escort one car at a time … we do multiple transports of multiple escorts of people each day, and we take a group of people in a convoy to ease the burden on our resources,” he said.
It was not confirmed how many such trips police have made.
Another Covid-positive truckie visits SA
Prof Spurrier said another infected truck driver visited the state on September 2 and 3.
She said the man visited the BP station at Wingfield on the corner of Grand Junction Rd and Dunstan Rd on September 2 and 3. The tier 2 exposure times are 11.00pm to 11.59pm, Sept 2, and 5.30am to 6.45am, Sept 3.
She confirmed SA was looking at the need for truck drivers to be vaccinated.
“We’ve been working with the leaders in the freight industry,” she said.
“We’re working through the nuts and bolts of that at the moment to make sure testing is very easy but also vaccination is very easy.”
Prof Spurrier said SA Health was conscious of the growing number of exemption requests for people wanting to travel into SA.
“What I can say is we’ve revamped the system, we have more staff,” she said.
“We are seeing increasing numbers and we just need to go through that and prioritise”
“The way out of this, as the Premier said, is to get vaccinated so that we can re-open our state borders in the first instance.”
Caps for functions, weddings increased
Mr Stevens announced that caps on private functions held outside the home would increase from 50 to up to 150 people.
He said the functions, such as weddings, would need to have QR code check-ins, an independent Covid marshall and still follow the one person per 2 sqm rule. Standing up consumption will be allowed.
Dancing is still restricted to the bridal party, and home gatherings are still capped at 20 people.
Mr Stevens maintained the threat from rising case numbers in other states meant restrictions could not be eased substantially.
“We are trying to find a way to free up activities as much as possible but maintain a level of safety based on the concerns we have with NSW, ACT and Victoria, and the emerging threat we see from transport workers entering the state,” Mr Stevens said.
Almost 1000 now in quarantine
The number of South Australians currently in quarantine has nearly doubled after two new exposure sites were discovered.
The locations linked to a Covid-positive truck driver who passed through the state last week are not considered public exposure sites, but sent 455 workers at both sites into quarantine.
It takes the total number of people isolating in connection to Covid positive truck drivers to 991 in the state.
The majority of isolating South Australians – 91 per cent – have produced negative first tests, and SA Health are awaiting the remaining results in coming days.
Prof Spurrier said she wanted to reassure the people of Murray Bridge, the location of a business which was one of the private exposure sites, that SA Health was not concerned about community exposure there.
“Just for people in Murray Bridge I think the risk for you is very low,” she said.
“Because we’re very cautious here, we had any close contacted tested, we also had the rest of the staff tested.”
Meanwhile, SA Health has updated its advice for two Covid exposure locations.
The exposure times for the Wingfield Ampol Foodary, at 664-668 South Rd, have been updated. And the OTR Pinnaroo, at 6-8 Mallee Hwy, is no longer considered to be a COVID-19 exposure location. See the exposure site list below for full details.
SEE EVERY COVID TESTING STATION HERE
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