South Australia sending extra police to border with Victoria

South Australia is sending police to its border checkpoints with Victoria, as its neighbouring state battles a surge in coronavirus cases.

South Australia is sending police to its border checkpoints with Victoria, as its neighbouring state battles a surge in coronavirus cases.

Victoria today registered another 17 fresh cases — with 11 of them of unknown source — meaning the state has seen double-digit growth in new coronavirus cases for the seventh day in a row.

There has been calls from some state government members to impose restrictions on travel to and from Victoria in an effort to control the spike.

The SA Government today said that extra police would be sent to border checkpoints in the east.

Premier Steven Marshall told reporters that anyone wanting to travel into South Australia from Victoria would need to go through a pre-approval process.

Victoria today registered another 17 fresh cases — with 11 of them of unknown source. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“We will maintain our very strong border policy, in particular with relation to the border with Victoria,” Mr Marshall said.

“Police will be putting additional resources down onto that border.

“As of next week, we will move to a pre-approval arrangement with all people coming across that border.”

He said the state remains on track to lift all its remaining border restrictions on July 20 but he is closely monitoring the situation in Victoria.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said that because the state’s borders with Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland were reopened officers could now pay more attention to the Victorian border.

“Recognising the concerns in relation to our eastern neighbours, we are increasing the number of police we have on the border checkpoints, we are increasing the number of static checkpoints that we have between South Australia and Victoria,” he said.

“We are increasing the number of general patrols as well that are working on those border access roads.”

Meanwhile, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has bluntly warned families and business travellers planning trips to Melbourne “don’t go there”.

She urged holiday resorts to reject school holiday bookings from families from hot spot Victorian suburbs, describing the option as “basic pandemic management”.

As at 8pm Monday 22 June, there was 1 new case of #COVID19 diagnosed in NSW. This case is a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. Two previously confirmed cases have been excluded after further testing, meaning the total number of cases in NSW is now 3,150. pic.twitter.com/DhGYPRJaA6

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 23, 2020

“You should not be travelling to Melbourne at this time because of the rate of community transmission,’’ she said.

“Do not go interstate. My advice is even stronger, do not go down there.

“Do not take the risk. It’s not worth it and people from those hot spots are actually disregarding what their own Premier and health officials are saying.

“People from those hot spots should not be travelling anywhere, let alone interstate.”

Queensland, meanwhile still plans to reopen its reopen of the border on July 10, but escalating community transmission in Victoria has cast a shadow over that timeline.

The Sunshine State has now gone six days without a single new coronavirus case, and has just two active cases.

Ms Palaszczuk on Monday would not rule out the possibility of opening borders to select states, but on Tuesday said Queensland was not in discussions with other states about creating a so-called ‘travel bubble’.

A decision on reopening borders will not be made until after a national cabinet meeting on Friday, she says.