Young Victorian girl becomes South Australia’s first Covid case since reopening borders

A young Victorian girl has become South Australia’s first Covid case since reopening its borders as the premier warns there will be more.

A young Victorian girl has become South Australia’s first Covid case since reopening its borders as the premier warns there will be more.

Nine News reports that the child travelled into SA by road with her family from Victoria yesterday to visit relatives.

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the girl’s mother received a text alert from Victorian health authorities during the journey confirming her daughter was a close contact of a case.

SA Health Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier.

The family got tested during their road trip and continued on to Adelaide.

Professor Spurrier said while contact tracers had established there are no sites of concern, two of the girl’s SA relatives are quarantining at home.

The girl and her family have since returned to Victoria and are also in home quarantine.

SA Premier Steven Marshall said the state should expect more cases now that the border is open after 153 days.

South Australian Premier, Steven Marshall.

“The reality is there is an inevitability that there will be cases in South Australia,” he said.

So far more than 60,000 people have registered to come into SA in the coming days and weeks.

“We are expecting a very significant increase in the amount of testing which we envisage will need to be done in SA,” Mr Marshall said. “We are good to go. We’ve made all the necessary precautions, now we need to have Australians continue to get vaccinated as we head towards the end of year.”

The AMA’S SA President Dr Michelle Atchison.

The government’s website had crashed under the stress of high volumes of traffic but was up and running again by Monday evening.

Australian Medical Association SA chief Dr Michelle Atchison warned that it was “too early” for the state to be reopening its borders.

Originally published as Young Victorian girl becomes South Australia’s first Covid case since reopening borders