Covid-19 positive family allowed to fly into South Australia from overseas
Authorities have hit back at suggestions why a Covid positive family was allowed to fly into one state on a privately funded flight from overseas.
A Covid-19 positive family was allowed to fly in to South Australia from overseas last week on a privately funded medical emergency evacuation flight, health authorities have confirmed.
It comes as the state recorded its first local Covid-19 infections in 212 days on Tuesday when five new cases emerged.
A miner, who worked at the Northern Territory mine where positive virus cases popped up earlier this week, tested negative on returning to South Australia but later returned a positive test.
His wife and three of his four children, all of who had been quarantining at home since Saturday, also tested positive.
But when addressing reporters about the latest developments, SA Premier Stephen Marshall was quizzed about another Covid-19 positive family that had recently returned.
A reporter asked the Premier why a family was allowed to fly in from Singapore after already testing positive for coronavirus.
Mr Marshall said he wasn’t aware of the matter and threw to SA chief health officer Nicola Spurrier to confirm the details.
She could not confirm if the family had the Delta strain, but said it was a “pre-existing arrangement” and that medevac (emergency medical evacuation) retrieval flights occurred in Southeast Asia when people were sick.
“It is a charter flight, a small flight, medical retrieval plane that goes and receives them,” Ms Spurrier told reporters.
“It is a hospital to hospital transfer, so the initial contact will be made between the hospital where that person is and in our state Royal Adelaide Hospital.
“This happens on a fairly regular basis in the eastern states like Queensland and NSW because of course they are a little bit closer to many of those regions.
“But in this instance this family live in Adelaide so they were returning residents and this was why the medevac retrieval was organised in this way.”
The reporter then questioned Ms Spurrier on the rules and why there was “one set of rules for the general population and a different set of rules for people who are wealthy enough to charter their own flight despite being positive”.
To which Ms Spurrier said it was “not about wealth”.
“I can understand why people would be confused but this is a pre-existing arrangement,” she said.
“It’s not about people chartering their own flight usually – usually they are there working.
“So they’re an Australian working for an Australian company and they happened to be in those areas.”
SA authorities introduced restrictions on Tuesday including reducing home gatherings to 10.
South Australians will also need to wear masks in all indoor settings.
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