Restrictions to ease in SA, allowing more people at weddings, funerals and the football

South Australians will be rewarded for their “contribution in keeping themselves, their families and communities safe” with eased restrictions.

South Australians will once again be rewarded for their “good efforts” and have COVID-19 restrictions eased.

After the state’s Transition Committee meeting on Friday, Premier Steven Marshall said the number of people who could attend weddings, funerals and the football would increase as of midnight on Friday.

“The rate of new infections in Victoria is coming down,” he said.

“We’ve said since day one that we’ll adjust our restriction commensurate with the risk. We saw an increase in restrictions when the risk was increasing – in particular that risk across the border – and as that’s coming down we need to adjust our restrictions as well.”

More people are now allowed to watch the Adelaide Crows. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The maximum number of people attending weddings and funerals will increase from 100 to 150.

The capacity of crowds at the football, which is currently 10,000 people, will increase to 15,000 people this weekend.

“Provided that goes well, we can progressively increase that too as we move back towards a 25,000 capacity at Adelaide Oval,” Mr Marshall said.

The newly eased restrictions will also allow hotel patrons to be served alcohol and food while seated at the bar.

About eight weeks ago, Mr Marshall reaffirmed his position that employees should work from home unless they needed to be on premises.

However, his advice has since changed, and he now encourages employees to return to work on the provision businesses and companies have a continuity plan and strict ways of managing common areas.

“We’ve seen some great interactions with companies where they would break their workforce into two, three or four groups so if there is an outbreak with one group, it doesn’t necessarily affect the entire workforce,” he said.

No decision was made to ease border restrictions with NSW and the ACT despite Mr Marshall praising NSW Health for its prompt response to the state’s outbreaks.

The South Australia-Victoria border remains closed to all but essential workers. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

He said opening the borders to the two jurisdictions would be guided by the number of new infections.

“NSW and the ACT continue to do extremely well. We’d like to see a period of time where there is no community transmission. We’re thinking it should be about 14 days,” he said.

“When the epidemiologists and Professor Spurrier and SA Health look through their numbers with their counterparts interstate, they find out with many of them they know the full epi link, which aren’t of as much concern, but we are concerned about community transmission.”

There is still a hard border arrangement in place with Victoria – only allowing those of essential status to enter the state – and travellers from NSW and the ACT must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

In the hospitality sector, affecting bars, clubs, restaurants and pubs, one person per two square metres is allowed.

The announcement comes as the state recorded no new infections on Friday for the 12th consecutive day and has no active cases.

Mr Marshall said it was something everyone in the state should be proud of.

“I genuinely want to thank everyone for the contribution they've made to keeping themselves, their families and communities safe and abiding by the restrictions in place,” he said.