SA house party limits lifted to 200 people under eased COVID rules

It’s party time as the cap on house parties is lifted, the Ash Barty party heads to SA – and two top leaders celebrate birthdays.

House parties can now have up to 200 people and the Ash Barty party is coming to Adelaide, as Premier Steven Marshall and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens celebrated their own birthday parties with an easing of restrictions.

However, there is no change to border restrictions with NSW, with hope they may be eased on January 31 if there are no further cases there following six last Sunday.

The move to increase the house party limit from 50 to 200 from midnight on Thursday was particularly aimed at families wanting to host home weddings. While there is a cap of 200 for weddings and funerals at functions centres, home gatherings were limited to 50 regardless of the occasion.

The move to increase the house party limit was particularly aimed at families wanting to host home weddings

Ash Barty is coming to Adelaide. Picture: George Favios

The change comes with conditions – a limit of one person per two sqm is in force, the parties will need to have a COVID-Safe plan, have a dedicated COVID Marshall, have a QR code to scan that comes with the COVID-Safe plan, and keep a guest list.

Breaches can result in expiation notices of up to $1000 per person.

A jubilant Mr Marshall, after wishing himself and Mr Stevens a happy birthday following the Transition Committee meeting, also announced tennis champion Ash Barty will play in the Day at the Drive exhibition on January 29.

“The Barty party is coming to Adelaide,” he said.

“She a great competitor and the winner of the Adelaide International, she loved her time in Adelaide, she’s going to be back here taking on the very best in the world and we wish her all the best.”

Around 8000 people will attend the event in two sessions.

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier noted there had been no problems with tennis players now in quarantine in Adelaide but allowed to train at Memorial Drive.

She said SA recorded two new cases of COVID-19, a man in his 40 and a woman in her 20s, but they were old infections.

They will be counted in SA’s total which now stands at 596 with five active cases, as they had not been counted elsewhere. Both people returned from overseas and are in quarantine in a medi-hotel, and have no link to the tennis players.

Prof Spurrier said the decision to lift the cap on home gatherings was particularly aimed at weddings.

“One of the reasons we decided to make this change is people would like to have weddings at their home,” she said.

“Being able to have a wedding of 200 people at your home instead of having to book a wedding function centre will be a wonderful things for many people in our state.

“I hope that gives some relief particularly for brides and grooms going into this year.”

Commissioner Stevens said special occasions such as weddings at homes would likely exceed 50 people but “we would imagine it would be rare to have 200.”

He noted issues from catering to parking meant such occasions tend to have a limit of less than 200.

The Transition Committee will meet again next Thursday to consider the NSW border situation – while SA is open to most of regional NSW, the hard border is in place for Greater Sydney, Wollongong, Blue Mountains and the Central Coast.

Originally published as SA house party limits lifted to 200 people under eased COVID rules