WA hard border eased to allow people regional areas into SA

SA has eased the hard-border closure with WA to allow people from regional WA into the state – as daily tests start for medi-hotel workers.

SA’s hard border with WA has been eased after the state’s top cop allowed travellers from regional areas to enter the state as another virus case emerges in hotel quarantine.

Restrictions remain for anyone who has visited the Greater Perth area over the past week since Australia Day, but after new information overnight, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, the state’s covid co-ordinator, approved new measures that allow anyone travelling from regional WA to immediately enter the state.

This will also allow regional travellers currently in quarantine in SA to immediately leave home isolation – they must still get tests on their fifth and 12th days.

“It’s about the information that were being provided and what we have access to from Western Australia, monitoring their activity, the level of testing they’re undertaking, how they’re managing their contact tracing,” Mr Stevens said.

“So, at this point we’re comfortable that we can constrict our level of restriction to the greater Perth area.

“We continue to discuss all of the restrictions we have in place across the South Australian community, looking for opportunities to relax those without increasing the level of risk.

“Whilst we’re still dealing with a Western Australian situation I would suggest that we’re not going to make any changes to activities within South Australia.”

After the meeting, Mr Stevens revealed testing requirements for any traveller from Greater Sydney will cease at 12.01am on February 13, which will be 28 days since the last community transmission case there.

The details emerged as SA Health recorded a new patient, bringing the state’s total to 597 cases.

The traveller, a man in his 20s remains in the Pullman medi-hotel but an SA Health spokeswoman said serology testing was investigating if he had an old infection.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. Picture: Mike Burton

As of Monday night, coronavirus contact tracers have yet to hear from 1600 people who have arrived in South Australia from Western Australia as chaos from Perth’s five-day COVID-19 lockdown spread across the country.

Mr Stevens initially authorised a hard WA border closure without warning late on Sunday night after a Perth medi-hotel security guard contracted the virus before he travelled through the community.

Meanwhile, despite national cabinet agreeing on January 8 for all medi-hotel workers to have daily COVID tests, that has yet to occur in this state. SA Health on Monday night said it would be in place within days.

SA Health told The Advertiser that all medi-hotel staff receive PCR testing every seven days but a staged rollout to daily testing had been undertaken to ensure adequate resourcing.

She added: “The rollout has been undertaken in a staged approach to ensure the availability of appropriate testing capacity at all times.”

It will also be expanded to include airport workers from later this month.

This morning, Premier Steven Marshall said the implementation of daily testing would be allocated to highest risk jobs first.

“It is the (SA Police) officers, it is the protective security officers, it is the nurses, it is the people that are working on the front desks of the hotels more generally,” he told ABC Radio.

In another dramatic day, SA Health officials on Monday scrambled to contact almost 4000 travellers who had returned from WA in the week since Australia Day.

SA authorities ordered at least 1113 travellers into quarantine. Of those who had been sent text messages, as of Monday night 1604 people had yet to respond.

Another 1206 travellers were not required to quarantine for various reasons, such as not being considered a public health risk or having left SA.

Late Monday, WA Premier Mark McGowan announced no new locally acquired cases on the first day of his state’s lockdown, amid criticism about a lack of information.

Contact tracers had yet to identify any close contacts in SA of the guard, dubbed “Case 903”, who was also a driver for a rideshare company and believed to be infectious with a mutant British strain for at least six days.

SA’s transition committee meets today, during which officials will assess the state’s restrictions and WA data.

The country’s top medical panel, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, is meeting daily.

The WA bans on Monday caused widespread confusion as two Adelaide-based AFLW games scheduled for this weekend were suspended.

Jacqui Vrettis from Glenelg and Christin Foundas from Richmond arrive in Adelaide from Perth on Monday. Picture: Emma Brasier

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who as state COVID co-ordinator was informed about the guard at 3pm on Sunday, defended shutting the WA border as a sensible precaution.

A police statement issued just after 5pm on Sunday said officials were “closely monitoring” the situation overnight.

Mr Stevens, who described the issue as “groundhog day”, then signed legal directions at 10.15pm before police announced the changes two hours later, after midnight.

“That was the earliest that we could put the direction in place,” he said.

“If we had a mechanism that allowed us to do it more quickly than we would have signed it earlier.

“We understand the imposition this has on people in terms of a lack of advance notice but we are responding to a pandemic.”

Mr Stevens said there were two main concerns: the more virulent UK strain being found, and a lack of information from WA authorities on its testing and tracing.

He said once authorities knew where the virus had been identified in WA, it may be possible to reduce restrictions to quarantine those who had been in identified hot spots, instead of the entire state.

Adelaide Airport security staff monitor a Qantas flight leave Adelaide for Perth on Monday morning. Picture: Emma Brasier

Mr Stevens said SA’s low level of restrictions meant the virus could transmit quickly.

“If COVID-19 finds its way in to the community, the last thing we want to be doing is talking about a SA lockdown,” he said.

Mr Marshall said border closures were hard.

“We know putting border restrictions in place quickly can reduce that risk and that’s precisely what we have had to do very quickly to protect SA,” he said.

The state also marked a full year since its first coronavirus case. SA has no “active” patients after one case was reclassified.

Originally published as WA hard border eased to allow people regional areas into SA