SA records Covid-19 case after woman catches Jetstar flight from Victoria

Covid-19 has jumped the border from Victoria after a woman who had an exemption flew home on a Jetstar flight.

Covid-19 has jumped the border from Victoria to South Australia with a new case announced in Adelaide on Saturday.

The state’s Deputy chief health officer Emily Kirkpatrick said a woman in her thirties who recently returned from Victoria had tested positive to the coronavirus.

She arrived in South Australia on Friday evening by plane with an exemption to return home from the Covid-plagued eastern state.

Her Jetstar flight, JQ778 from Melbourne, is now an exposure site, as is the ground floor female bathroom at Adelaide Airport near the baggage carousel between 5.55pm and 6.15pm.

South Australia Deputy Chief Officer Emily Kirkpatrick said a woman on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Adelaide has tested positive for Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

The woman was taken by a bus to a medi-hotel with the other passengers on the flight.

“This person did test negative on the 30th of September, so really important to note this was then a positive test picked up on the first of October,” Dr Kirkpatrick said.

“It was likely to be the early onset of her infectious period.”

The woman was fully vaccinated with Pfizer.

Dr Kirkpatrick said it was understood there were eight people on the flight and “we will be contacting all the individuals from this flight”.

The woman flew on Jetstar flight JQ778 from Melbourne to Adelaide on Friday evening. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“It‘s very pleasing that this individual has not been out in the community, but of course we are concerned about that Adelaide Airport site,” she said.

No further cases have been reported from two truck drivers who tested positive earlier in the week in South Australia.

Dr Kirkpatrick said the state had also found a “historical” Covid-19 case of a male overseas arrival, who was counted in Saturday’s numbers even though it was an old case.