South Australia Covid updates for Sunday, January 2: 2298 new cases with 82 people in hospital

A city nightclub and a regional football club are among new close contact exposure sites after SA recorded 2298 new cases yesterday, with 82 people in hospital.

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SA Health listed several new close contact exposure sites late Sunday, as the number of new cases soared.

They included anyone who was at the Dog and Duck on Hindley St on New Year’s Eve from 10pm until 11pm, or the Exchange Hotel at Gawler on Christmas Eve from 6.30pm to 10.30pm.

The West Augusta Football Club gym at Port Augusta West was also listed at various times on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

Anyone who was at the sites at times of concern must get a PCR test immediately and quarantine for seven days since being at the site.

Patrons line up to get into Dog & Duck on Hindley St. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

The new sites were listed despite the Prime Minister Scott Morrison overhauling the definition of a close contact to people who lived with positive cases, intimate partners, or those who spent more than four hours with the infectious person.

SA recorded 2298 new cases on Sunday, with 82 people in hospital, seven of whom are in intensive care.

It follows two days of more than 2000 new cases in SA, with 21,140 tests conducted on Saturday.

Premier Steven Marshall said the 82 people in hospital were within the state’s “current capacities”, because a lot of patients were only staying in for short periods until they are stabilised.”

There are seven children in hospital, down from 10 on Saturday. And there were 60 Covid positive patients within the prison system, most of whom were in Mobilong Prison but there were also some in Adelaide Women’s Prison and Adelaide Pre-Release Centre

A worker has also tested positive at Port Augusta Prison.

It comes as Mr Marshall urged all eligible South Australians to get their third jab following a drop in the number of people rolling up their sleeve on New Year’s Day.

“We did have a drop off yesterday, we know it was New Year’s Day …. but most vaccination clinics were reporting that there was plenty of spare capacity,” Mr Marshall said.

“This is a disease which doesn’t take the day off,” he told reporters on Sunday.

“This is a disease that we really need to take seriously, especially the new Omicron variant.”

He added that SA was “massively flexing up capacity” for booster vaccinations.

“We still are weeks away from the peak of this disease,” he said.

He defended opening up borders, saying that decision was made before Omicron reared its head.

“It’s very difficult to stop Omicron anyway. What we’re doing in SA is getting on the front foot.”

From Monday, January 3, all public transport workers must have had at least one Covid-19 jab, and a booking for a second.

Labor health spokesman Chris Picton criticised the government for not opening up Parkwynd Private Hospital on East Tce to provide another 23 beds.

The hospital closed in April 2021 because major works required by the 106-year-old building were not financially or logistically possible.

The state government took over the facility in October as part of its Covid-19 response.

Mr Picton called on Mr Marshall to open the beds to alleviate pressure on the health system.

Mr Marshall said the beds were not yet needed. He the hospital was not suitable for ICU capacity.

“We are certainly nowhere needing that facility at the moment,” the Premier said.

WATCH SUNDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE

Saturday cases: January 1, 2022

South Australia recorded 2108 new cases of Covid on New Year’s Day.

Premier Steven Marshall announced there were now 71 patients in hospital, a sharp increase from 41 a day prior.

Among them are 10 children, SA Health said later.

But the number in intensive care remains at four – a man aged in his 30s, who was being ventilated while in an induced coma has been released from the ICU.

But two people in their 20s, one who is now being ventilated, have been admitted to ICU along with a person in their 50s and another in their 60s.

Of the hospital cases 22 are unvaccinated while 39 are fully jabbed.

There are 36 prisoners with Covid at Mobilong, Adelaide Women’s Prison and the Adelaide Pre-release Centre.

There were 23,790 tests on New Year’s Eve despite the heat while more than 8,000 people got their third booster jab on Friday.

Genomic testing of 39 cases indicated 36 of them were the highly transmissible – but likely milder in symptoms – Omicron variant. Just three were the Delta variant.

“We’re still weeks away from the peak (of Omicron) here in South Australia,” Mr Marshall said after the daily Covid ready committee meeting.

Non urgent elective surgery was likely to be banned within 24 to 48 hours, he said.

After taking briefings from Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who is also state co-ordinator, Mr Marshall said both he and SA Police were very pleased with the responsible behaviour of New Year’s Eve revellers across the state.

A high waste water reading in Port Augusta has raised concerns with a worker and three residents of a “sobering up” clinic having tested positive.

Up to 50 close contacts have been urgently placed into quarantine, Mr Marshall said.

Meanwhile, the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated international arrivals into South Australia has been scrapped. People entering the state will also no longer need to complete an EntryCheck SA travel application or have a rapid antigen test before coming.

WATCH SATURDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE

Friday cases: December 31, 2021

SA has recorded two more deaths and a “significant” rise of 2093 Covid cases on the last day of the year, a huge jump on Thursday’s figure of 1374.

Two aged-care residents, both Covid positive, died – a woman in her 90s and a man in his 80s. The cause of death is not confirmed and have been referred to the Coroner.

Friday’s cases include 206 children and 145 teenagers.

There are 44 people in hospital with Covid and four in intensive care, one is on a ventilator but all are considered stable.

SA had 25,943 tests on Thursday – a new record, Premier Steven Marshall said.

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Test result bungle

SA Pathology has admitted sending 11 people the wrong Covid test results. Six people who were told they were Covid-negative were positive, and five who were told they were positive were negative.

In a statement late on Friday, SA Health said 11 people received a text message advising them of the incorrect Covid-19 results.

“While the PCR test result was correct, an IT issue resulted in the incorrect result being sent to the individuals,” a spokeswoman said.

“A clarification was sent within three hours of the original message being received and we’ve contacted all those affected to explain the situation and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

The spokeswoman said the error was found during SA Pathology’s usual quality control processes and while this is the first occurrence in South Australia, they have implemented further measures to prevent it happening again.

SA Pathology has conducted 110,235 Covid-19 tests since Monday.

Contact rules

Mr Marshall moves to clarify the state’s new rules about close contacts, and Treasurer Rob Lucas announced a $40m rescue package for hospitality and tourism industries hit by the new density requirements. And SA Ashes hero Travis Head has tested positive to Covid.

Mr Marshall said workers in sectors where vaccinations were mandatory would soon be required to have three shots.

People coming into SA are no longer required to use the Entry Check SA, or a take a rapid test if they are coming over the border, effective immediately.

“This is not a good use of our resources at the moment,” Mr Marshall said.

He said fully vaccinated people arriving from overseas would no longer have to quarantine as of midnight on Friday.

Mr Marshall moved to clarify the state’s new rules about close contacts, saying chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier’s statement about “15 minutes” was a guideline and not a direction.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said most of the states had agreed to narrow the definition of a close contact to people who spent four hours or more with a positive case in a “household-like setting”, in an attempt to lower testing queues.

But Mr Marshall said SA was not using that rule, and would instead classify a close contact as someone who spent time with or was an intimate partner with a positive case.

Asked to clarify the close contacts rules, he said there was no “hard and fast” message.

“It is variable – if you had dinner with someone who has Covid, you have a high chance of getting it, you should get a PCR test. But there are a million variations of that,” Mr Marshall said.