SA slams to shut border to Greater Brisbane over COVID outbreak

Brisbane’s COVID outbreak hasn’t stopped plans to increase SA’s venue capacity limits from Wednesday. Pubs, restaurants, cinemas and other venues can go to 75 per cent.

South Australia will raise capacity limits for pubs, clubs, cinemas and other venues despite the growing COVID cluster in Brisbane.

On Monday afternoon the state’s borders closed to Brisbane travellers, in a snap decision that throws Easter holiday plans into chaos.

SA residents and essential travellers can return home but must quarantine for 14 days, after Brisbane entered a three-day lockdown.

But fears of COVID-19 spreading from Brisbane will not stop State Government plans to boost capacity limits in SA pubs, restaurants and other venues from midnight tonight.

At a Transition Committee meeting on Tuesday, it was decided to continue to increase limits in clubs, pubs and restaurants to 75 per cent, capped at 1000 people, from next Wednesday.

Cinemas and churches will be allowed to go to 100 per cent capacity with up to 1000 patrons – but they must wear masks.

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Operation of shisha, smoking or vaping is also now permitted (whether indoor or outdoor) if no reusable equipment associated with shisha, smoking or vaping is permitted.

Patrons must also be provided a disposable mouthpiece and hose to be only used once by one person and must not share the same shisha pot during a session.

A shisha pot cannot be re-used until it is thoroughly sanitised inside and out.

The Adelaide Crows’ clash with the Gold Coast Suns will go ahead on Friday night at Adelaide Oval, officials said, with Suns players landing in Adelaide on Tuesday.

“I know this is coming at exactly the wrong time,” Premier Steven Marshall said on Monday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk ordered Greater Brisbane into a snap lockdown from 5pm Monday after four “concerning” cases of community transmission, including a nurse who had not been vaccinated.

She and her sister travelled to Byron Bay while infectious, but no NSW travel alerts have been issued.

The patients are linked to a hospital cluster, which was sparked by a doctor treating overseas arrivals. Special tests found a highly contagious UK strain.

Acting on Ms Palaszczuk’s urgent advice to Mr Marshall, SA authorities declared Brisbane a “hotspot”, imposing indefinite travel restrictions from 5pm Monday.

Passengers and airline crew arriving from Brisbane at Adelaide Airport are directed to the COVID-19 processing station. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Mr Marshall, who announced the bans with less than five hours’ notice, said authorities were “not happy to do this” as it was “going to be a huge inconvenience to people, especially in the lead-up to this Easter period”.

“To be quite honest, everyone needs to remain very, very alert at the moment,” he said.

“There is a concerning outbreak in Queensland. We don’t know the level of community movement from people who have been affected.

“But until we get a really complete picture, I think people need to expect there can be some further changes to the restrictions ... if we do learn that we’re at a high risk.”

Legal directions, signed by Acting Police Commissioner Linda Williams late Monday, placed a hard border on all travellers from Greater Brisbane and surrounding areas, including Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich and Redlands.

Only SA residents, essential workers and people relocating can cross the border.

They must isolate for 14 days and take virus tests on their first, fifth and 13th day in quarantine.

Officials said an original 4pm border closure was scrapped due to a flight landing at 4.45pm and passengers not having time to change plans. Brisbane travellers who have arrived since March 20 must immediately test and self-isolate until they receive a negative result. Those arriving from March 11 should test if they develop symptoms.

Arrivals from March 20 are banned from “high risk” locations, such as residential aged care, jails or certain hospitals, as well as venues approved for more than 1000 people.

SA Health has contacted more than 10,000 travellers since Saturday and 10 people have been ordered into quarantine over fears of having visited exposure sites in Queensland.

SA chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier and Premier Steven Marshall. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier, who had a close relative caught up in the chaos, urged travellers to check if they had visited “high-risk” locations.

Announcing two new ill expatriates in SA medi-hotels, she urged people to get tested for even mild symptoms and to use QR code check-ins.

“Whilst we might not have disease in our community, we always have a risk of disease,” she said. “This situation is evolving, the number of exposure sites has been increasing rapidly over the weekend.

“My team will be reassessing the situation on a daily basis, and we don’t want to have any border controls.

“We are very unrestricted here ... and that’s wonderful. But it does mean if we have cases in our community, that it would spread very rapidly.”

Ms Williams urged calm from road users, as police established road checkpoints at Oodla Wirra, on the Barrier Highway, and Wentworth.

SA has two new cases today, both returned travellers. SA has 16 active cases and 652 in total.