Michael Owen-Brown: SA Health’s 80% quarantine rule is ludicrous and should be dumped

Forcing people into quarantine if they live in a council area where the vax rate is under 80 per cent is cruel, arbitrary and ineffectual, argues Michael Owen-Brown.

Serious question – when was the last time you left your local government area?

Popped on a hazmat suit to cross the demilitarised zone and venture into the terrifying danger zone of – gasp – a neighbouring council?

I know, it’s a frightening prospect – but someone needs to tell the boffins at SA Health that Australia is full of roaming anarchist types whose horizons range broader than the small park at the end of the street.

Because according to one ridiculous quarantine rule adopted by SA Health, they seem to think every resident in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane never crosses council lines. Never hops on a train to work. Never drives 15 minutes to the local Westfield. Never catches up with friends at a pub across town.

SA’s reopening rules say from November 23, fully vaccinated visitors entering SA from interstate will have to quarantine if they arrive from a local government area with a double vaccination rate of less than 80 per cent, and community transmission.

Professor Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

On Wednesday, Advertiser.com.au focused on the craziness of basing such an arbitrary rule on data that is simply wrong.

The federal government’s vaccination rate count for individual LGAs is based on population data that predates the pandemic.

Y’know, that time when our cities – especially our CBDs – were packed with overseas students who’ve now upped sticks and gone back to their home countries.

So the actual vaccination rate is higher than the official figures indicate.

Premier Steven Marshall and Professor Nicola Spurrier have both acknowledged the data is dodgy.

“Our information to date suggests that LGAs in Melbourne and Sydney have higher rates than reported by the Commonwealth Government,” Professor Spurrier said in a statement released late on Wednesday.

So it seems that by November 23, authorities will accept that vaccination rates in these areas are over 80 per cent after all – regardless of what the official figures say.

But I reckon the bigger point here is that the 80 per cent LGA vaccination rate is illogical, confusing, ineffectual and dumb.

It creates shifting sands at a time when families are desperate for certainty. Do they book a flight back to SA hoping their LGA’s vax rate will inch over 80 per cent by the time they’re boarding? Do they try and find a workaround – like the parent who told us they were seeing if renting an Airbnb in a high-vax area for their daughter would circumvent the rules? And how will “community transmission” be accurately monitored when the whole country has opened up and some cases aren’t even symptomatic because those infected have been vaccinated?

People don’t just live in a bubble. Other cities aren’t in lockdown any more. Citizens move around – and you can catch Covid anywhere.

I’m not one of those people who pop up in our comments section saying SA Health is a laughing stock. I think that by and large, SA authorities’ handling of the pandemic has been very good.

Alice Leake would like to return home to Robe, South Australia, but being from the City of Melbourne it would mean she has to quarantine under current rules, as the official vaccination rate there is still under 80 per cent. Picture: Mark Stewart

Clusters have been quickly quashed, and we’ve avoided the extended lockdowns experienced by our eastern neighbours thanks to balanced and prudent governance.

And I recognise that this rule is well-intentioned, and that visitors from anti-vaxxer hot spots will pose a higher risk of passing on the virus.

But I do think this 80 per cent limit is arbitrary and should be dumped. I cannot see how it can be enforced fairly – how can someone from a country town with a 75 per cent vax rate pose more of a risk than someone living in a packed inner-city apartment block where the rate is 82 per cent?

I’ll give the last word to expat South Aussie Alice Leake, 34, who lives in the Melbourne City Council area, and who we interviewed on Wednesday. She’s desperate to see her family and friends. “Five of my closest friends in Melbourne can’t get back home for Christmas because of the quarantine requirements. I really think it should be based on your vaccination status.”

Makes sense to me. What do you think?