Sydney worker tests positive after visiting SA, border controls to NSW tightened

Tighter border controls are now in place after an infected Sydney worker travelled to SA amid NSW’s worsening Covid crisis.

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A new crackdown on our borders in light of the case of an infected Sydney worker travelling to South Australia has come into effect.

South Australians returning to SA will not be allowed to come home from NSW without a special exemption, Premier Steven Marshall said.

“This delta variant is particularly transmissible and we must do all we can to protect South Australians,” Mr Marshall said.

“We don’t want a lockdown in South Australia.”

Last week about 950 South Australians returned home from NSW. Mr Marshall said that flow would be “cut right off” from midnight Monday.

There would also be increased testing at the border.

A family who moved to regional SA – the McLaren Vale region – from NSW spent about five hours with the infected removalist and two others who also travelled from NSW.

The family were quarantining and continue to do so.

“The family who did come into contact with the removalists have tested negative on day 1 and day 4,” Mr Marshall said.

Authorities are now weighing up whether SA petrol stations will be declared exposure sites, after it emerged they were visited by the removalists.

“We have no known places we are concerned about here in South Australia at the moment.”

Meanwhile, 72-year-old South Australian woman become unwell after having her first dose of AtraZeneca.

“She passed away last night,” Mr Marshall said on Monday.

The woman’s case was linked to thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

Deputy chief public health officer Emily Kirkpatrick said South Australia recorded two new cases overnight – a boy and a man in his 40s – both in medi-hotels.

Two people remain in hospital – a man in his 60s and a man in his 20s. Both are stable.

She said anyone coming from NSW will be required to quarantine and get tested on days 1, 5 and 13.

Dr Kirkpatrick said there were no QR check-ins recorded by the removalists and that all three who crossed the border were being interviewed by health authorities.

The infected removalist – a man in his 30s – stayed overnight in Victoria on July 8 before driving into South Australia on July 9 and returning to NSW and taking a test on July 10.

He tested positive on July 11.

The man entered via the land border as an essential worker.

An infected Sydney worker visited SA. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who is the state’s Covid-19 co-ordinator, said the removalists were now being investigated.

Police were now reviewing the circumstances surrounding their day trip to South Australia.

He said the new orders would require more police resources but was necessary while also trying to “keep things as normal as possible” for South Australians, he said.

Mr Stevens said essential workers were required to get tested as they came in and to isolate outside of the work they were doing.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said a number of people would be forced into isolation and new exposure sites were expected to be listed on Monday.

“The deteriorating situation in New South Wales needs to be kept as far away from the hard work that Victorian communities have made,” he said.

Victoria recorded its 12th consecutive day without a locally acquired Covid-19 case on Monday, while NSW recorded 112 new cases as it battles to contain the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta strain.

Almost 9.1 million Covid-19 vaccination doses have been administered nationwide.