Twin border crackdowns for WA travellers and international arrivals

Two significant changes to border quarantine rules have been announced, affecting South Australians visiting Western Australia and international arrivals to our state.

South Australians travelling to Western Australia have been hit with a new border crackdown after authorities raised concerns about the mutant African strain and our rising number of Covid-19 cases.

In a snap decision that plunged travel plans into chaos, WA Premier Mark McGowan announced fully vaccinated SA travellers must quarantine for 14 days with immediate effect.

The tough new border rules, which raised SA’s risk from “very low” to “low”, also require travellers to have a Covid test on arrival and then on day 12.

Meanwhile, in response to the emergence of the mutated Omicron variant of Covid-19, SA authorities have ordered all newly arrived international visitors into 14 days of quarantine – double the existing requirement of 7 days.

In what Premier Steven Marshall said he hoped would only be a short-term measure, an updated legal direction says: “All international travellers arriving in South Australia or transiting through another port directly to South Australia must now undertake 14 days quarantine.”

In addition, SA authorities now require all interstate travellers to show proof of a negative test within 72 hours before arriving in SA.

The nation’s chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, said he had contacted state officials to enlist their help in mitigating any risk of an Omicron variant outbreak.

SA travellers due to visit WA in the coming days were notified by text message that their existing border passes would be cancelled.

Anyone who arrived in WA between last Tuesday and 2pm on Saturday and who had visited SA Health-identified exposure sites must also quarantine for 14 days.

In a joint statement with WA Health Minister Roger Cook, Mr McGowan raised concerns about the new Omicron variant as reasons for the clampdown, despite no SA cases with that strain.

He said the new variant emerged in southern Africa and was now understood to have been detected in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

“There is a great deal of uncertainty about the recently emerged Omicron variant,” he said. “So it is important WA has strong protections in place for states which have relaxed their international borders.

“With little known about the variant, it is important we act with an abundance of caution in dealing with potential spread into WA from overseas travellers arriving in other states. SA has also seen an increase in Covid-19 from interstate in recent days.

“While these are not Omicron cases, they clearly still present a risk to the WA community.”

Mr Cook said SA’s “relaxed border policy has seen increased infections from other states, and while they have not yet had community transmission, there is an increased number of exposure sites”.

An SA government spokesman declined to comment but Mr Marshall has said it is up to other state and territory leaders how they managed their borders.