Australian Defence Force personnel to help SA Police man the border this weekend as Victorian coronavirus outbreak worsens
The Australian Army will mobilise to help police officers guard South Australia’s borders this weekend as Victoria’s COVID-19 numbers soar to an alarming level.
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The Australian Army will mobilise to help SA police officers guard the state’s borders this weekend as Victoria’s COVID-19 outbreak worsens.
SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the ADF personnel would be headed to the South East of the state over the weekend to help police in their effort to contain the borders.
South Australia recorded no new cases of the virus on Friday.
Victoria recorded 288 new cases on Friday – a new record – and has over 1000 active cases.
Mr Stevens said the ADF had offered to provide any resources SA needed.
He rejected suggestions “the horse may have bolted” and that ADF help would come too late as thousands of people flocked into SA from Victoria before the border ban came into effect at midnight on Wednesday night.
“We’ve got sufficient police in place at the moment to provide coverage on those main access points to the state and we’ll be working to add to that capacity as we get additional resources down there.”
Mr Stevens said police would be enforcing three levels of controls at the borders; dedicated policing at entry points with high volumes of traffic, checks by police with support from the ADF and road blocks and other surveillance measures.
“I thin when you look at the number of new cases overnight in Victoria, 288 new cases, the issue is only growing in Victoria so the protections we put in place are even more important for South Australia,” he said.
Emerging from a meeting of the National Cabinet, Premier Steven Marshall said the situation in Victoria should serve as “a very blunt reminder to every single South Australian just how dangerous this disease is.”
He called on South Australians to “redouble” their efforts to keep the virus out of SA.
Those efforts included maintaining social distancing, washing your hands, maintaining personal hygiene, staying home when sick and getting tested if you are experiencing symptoms.
“We want to see that number (of people getting tested) continue to climb”.
Mr Marshall said SA was also continuing in its efforts to help Victoria manage its outbreak with dozens of nursers on the ground and contract tracers working remotely.
SA Pathology was also processing 500 tests per day for Victoria.
He said a national review had been announced into hotel quarantine protocols but was confident SA’s protocols were “gold standard”.
He also announced that Australia would be capping the number of overseas arrivals into the country of 4000 per week.
Earlier, Health authorities called on any South Australian with respiratory symptoms to volunteer for a COVID-19 test, saying extra checks are the only reliable way to find out if the disease had re-entered from Victoria.
Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier has called for a 50 per cent increase in people being tested, from 2000 to 3000 a day.
“Two thousand (a day), yeah it is not too bad, but given winter, many people will have respiratory symptoms at the moment and generally they wouldn’t do anything about it,’’ she said.
“Now, because of the threat from Victoria, the only way I can pick if the disease is here is if everybody with respiratory symptoms gets tested.’’
Nearly 1300 people raced to get into SA from Victoria on Wednesday, before the hard-border closure was enforced at midnight.
SA authorities granted entry to 226 people on Thursday.
Any South Australian who has been to Victoria in recent weeks has been asked to present for a voluntary swab to check for COVID-19.
About 310 vehicles crossed the border into SA in the six hours before midnight on Wednesday. None was caught bypassing checkpoints, and all border crossings were now either staffed or monitored.
Only South Australians returning and those with specific exemptions are now allowed to cross the Victorian border into SA.
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Police are working their way through a backlog of 31,709 applicants to enter SA, with 17,282 still awaiting processing.
People entering from Victoria will be given three free masks and a referral to the nearest testing station. SA Health will launch three mobile testing stations this week.
At Bordertown, bakery owner Virginia Davis said trade was well down because of a lack of through-traffic.
“I don’t understand why we can’t have regional Victorians in SA,” she said.
“I just feel for them.”