Tough Mt Gambier restrictions, ‘non-truth’ claims in Covid mum’s backstory, no new cases overnight
Restrictions and a new exposure site in Mt Gambier have been announced as authorities determine the exact movements of a Mt Gambier mother who contracted Covid in Victoria.
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An internal memo from a hospital in regional Victoria has raised questions over where a Covid-positive woman from Mount Gambier picked up the virus.
It comes as chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier announced there were no new cases in South Australia on Tuesday morning.
The memo also throws into doubt the necessity of new cross-border travel restrictions, which state residents may now travel only 30km over the border into Victoria and 40km into South Australia over the next seven days.
As reported by advertiser.com.au on Sunday, a mother of four from Mount Gambier tested positive to Covid-19 and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with serious respiratory symptoms.
SA Health has announced one exposure site in Mt Gambier, at the South Eastern Hotel Sip N Save, Friday, October 1 from 5.30pm-6.05pm. If you visited the site at these times you must monitor for symptoms and get tested if they develop.
The woman, in her 40s, returned home to Mount Gambier from Victoria last Friday, telling border police she had been to Casterton.
Professor Spurrier said on Tuesday morning all 12 close contacts of the woman had been contacted and were undertaking 14 days of quarantine.
There were 500 Covid-19 tests in Mt Gambier on Monday.
The positive case was tested at a drive-through clinic before being flown to Adelaide by the Royal Flying Doctor Service, where she was admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
She was transferred to the medi-hotel facility, Tom’s Court, on Monday, where she is continuing to receive treatment. Her children also have been moved there.
Two new exposure sites were listed on SA Health’s site overnight after a truck driver in his 30s from Victoria arrived in SA on October 2.
He felt unwell, got tested and returned to Victoria. The On the Run service station at Port Augusta, including Hungry Jack’s, and Ceduna X Conveinece at Ceduna were last night listed as tier 2 sites. Times of concern at the exposure site can be found at the SA Health website.
COVID-19 HEALTH ALERT 4 October 2021
— SA Health (@SAHealth) October 4, 2021
SA Health has identified new COVID-19 exposure locations in South Australia.
If you attended an exposure location, you are required to follow the relevant health advice.
More information is available at https://t.co/4sJYadglJupic.twitter.com/mK6Irw1cTm
The truckie has had one vaccination dose.
“It really highlights that close border between us and Victoria and NSW poses such a risk for us here in this state,” Professor Spurrier said.
The Mt Gambier case has led to tough new restrictions for Mt Gambier, Grant and Wattle Range council areas, which came into place from 4pm on Monday.
Police Commissioner Grant Stephens called an urgent press conference to announce:
ONE person per 4sq m density rules
HOME gatherings limited to two extra people, 10 for weddings or funerals
DANCING banned apart from bridal party members or dance studio with no alcohol service
SPORT spectators are prohibited unless they are a caregiver – and in that case, only one caregiver per player
PRIVATE activities capped at 10, no standing consumption or dancing
MANDATORY masks in public and high-risk areas.
NO communal food consumption, all eating and drinking must be seated
THERE is no restriction on attending workplaces.
The new restrictions are in place for a minimum of seven days.
“We are still doing inquiries as to the person’s movements,” Mr Stevens said, adding the rules were to “put a boundary around” those three local government areas.
He strongly recommended people on holiday in Mt Gambier go home or rethink travel to the area.
A new direction was issued on Sunday night, when it was believed the woman had travelled from Casterton, in western Victoria inside the 70km border bubble.
Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell later received a copy of a memo purportedly sent to staff by Casterton Memorial Hospital chief executive Owen Stephens.
The memo claimed it had been determined the “supposed Covid contact from Casterton has been found to be a non-truth”.
“The woman concerned has travelled we understand directly from Melbourne and through Casterton,” it read.
“She has used Casterton as an excuse to SA Police to get through our bubble zone into SA. “We understand that the SA Premier will be providing some advice on our border restrictions later this morning.
“Further information will be advised to you once fully established, but in the meantime, please relax a bit.”
The Advertiser contacted the hospital for comment but did not receive a response.
Mr Stevens said anyone with “information we don’t have” should contact SA Health authorities “instead of making statements in the media that are unsubstantiated”.
He said it was “too early to make any changes to the border bubble restrictions”.
Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said the woman was co-operating with SA Health contact tracers.
Her exact movements had yet to be determined.
“I can’t tell you at this time if she did visit (Casterton),” she said.
“I haven’t had a copy of the CEO’s memo, that person hasn’t contacted me.
“We have certain information we get from an individual and we go and corroborate that information from other sources.”
Prof Spurrier said 12 primary close contacts, including the woman’s children, had been identified.
Ten had been tested, with 10 negative results to date. Of 21 secondary close contacts, five had tested negative so far.
Asked why the woman had told authorities she had only been to Casterton, Prof Spurrier said she would not be drawn on the subject publicly.
“There are a number of reasons why people don’t always tell us absolutely what they have been up to,” she said.
“That might be because they are frightened or they might be anxious … so we just need to be cognisant that not everybody is in the same situation as we might be.”
Prof Spurrier thanked the woman for getting tested promptly so quickly.
She also reminded everyone that whatever anyone said to contact tracers would not be used to prosecute them.
Prof Spurrier said SA Health could only investigate the woman’s movements within the state.
She personally had not seen the email from the Casterton Hospital chief executive or been in contact with him.
“We cannot do the investigation on the Victorian side,” she said.
Prof Spurrier confirmed some people in the South East had telephoned authorities about the woman, including police and the Mt Gambier Hospital.
“Some people have been in contact,” she said.
“We are taking that information very seriously.
“When we have any definitive information about any potential exposure sites we will be making that information publicly available.”
Prof Spurrier said there were fewer than 4000 tests in SA on Sunday which was “too low”.
“That’s really not enough for us to be able to feel confident we are on top of things and able to pick up any possible cases of Covid,” she said.
Mr Bell said if it was determined that the woman had arrived in Mount Gambier from Melbourne, there was “no justification to keep the border bubble at 30km”.
Border distress, vax rule chaos
Cross-border community members are anxious about carrying on their normal lives after travel restrictions were tightened and vaccinations were made mandatory for those crossing the border.
The state’s second largest city will be further hit from today, when the travel bubble reduces to 40km on the SA side of the border, and 30km on the Victorian side of the border, which will separate some people from work, school and medical appointments.
Vaccinations for those crossing the SA border will also be compulsory within seven days – despite concerns that there are not enough appointments available.
Added to that, cross border permit holders must be tested for Covid every seven days.
The changes follow a Mount Gambier woman testing positive to the virus, after she reported travelling home from Casterton.
Cross Border Call Out’s Paula Gust, who advocates for border community members, said her phone had been running hot since news the travel bubble would contract.
Ms Gust said more people who have difficulty getting to work, school and health appointments, and SA Health’s huge backlog of travel exemption applications would increase.
“There would be hundreds of exemption applications already submitted to a system already behind,” she said.
Ms Gust said if vaccinations were enforced, more local appointments were vital.
“If people have to wait 2-3 weeks (for an appointment), that’s another 2-3 weeks of work they’re missing out on,” she said.
MacKillop MP Nick McBride said he understood more appointments were being introduced in the South-East.
Both Mr McBride and Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell said if the woman from Mount Gambier did not contract the virus in Casterton, the government should look to reinstate the travel bubble to 70km either side of the state’s border with Victoria.
The fallout was wide-ranging, Mr McBride said, saying among those contacting him today was a woman who was planning a ram sale on the Victorian side of the previous border bubble on Tuesday – now outside the permitted travel area. The sale could have turned over about $1.5m.
“She won’t be able to have any South Australians over the border now to buy,” Mr McBride said. “This is how much turmoil it causes.”
Cropping and sheep farmer Wayne Hawkins, of Frances – a town just inside the SA border – said the changes would make it difficult for producers to get help with farm work.
Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said: “I absolutely feel for those people”.
She said once authorities had more information about the Mount Gambier woman’s movements, the bubble could revert to its previous area.
Cross-border changes ‘nightmare’ for shearers
The tightening of cross border travel rules has thrown the shearing circuit into disarray, Shearing Contractors Australia’s Glenn Haynes says.
With shearing season in full swing, the Naracoorte man said the new restrictions meant some crew members may be unable to work or get home to South Australia.
“There’s the possibility of people being really affected by this,” he said on Monday.
“You’re not allowed to be in the same shed as someone that’s from more than 30km (into Victoria).
“Yesterday you could go to Edenhope but today you can’t. Logistically, it’s going to be a nightmare this week.”
Mr Haynes said among those hit by the uncertainty was a team of South Australian crew members who recently travelled to Harrow, which is about a 65km drive from the border in Victoria.
“Everything is up in the air,” Mr Haynes said. “It’s getting messier and messier.”
The uncertainty follows problems experienced by shearing contractors last year, when they were unable to access their usual cohort of workers, who travel from New Zealand for the season.
The sector has experienced the same problem this year with the closure of the Trans-Tasman travel bubble – however shearing crews had managed to work around that problem. Cross border community members, who work on both sides of the border, have also been told they must have had at least one Covid-19 jab within a week, if they are to continue to travel on their permits.
The reduction of the cross border travel bubble initially caused uncertainty in the forestry sector, which is highly mobile, with staff travelling across the Green Triangle in the South-East and western Victoria. But the sector is hopeful it could continue to operate across the region in line with previous agreements.
Ian McDonnell, director of N.F. McDonnell & Sons Sawmill, Mt Gambier said it was important for the sector to be able to work in line with agreed protocols. This would ensure staff and the community were kept safe – and the sector could keep supplying the country.
“We’ll be able to rely on our plan to keep all our workers safe and keep everybody working,” Mr McDonnell said.
Mount Gambier Combined Agents chair Andrew Whan said the cross border bubble’s tightening would affect stock agents’ ability to travel for work.
“It will certainly affect who we can or can’t see,” he said.
“The border is just a line on the map but it’s not really what our regions are – we’re more of a region than a state-based area.”