Emergency lockdown in South Australia to avert months of pain

South Australia is plunged into six-day lockdown as super-virulent COVID strain replicates five times since weekend.

An Adelaide resident stocks up at Dan Murphy’s in Hindmarsh on Wednesday, ready for the six-day lockdown. Picture: Getty Images

South Australia has been plunged into a dramatic six-day lockdown to break the back of what is feared to be a super-virulent strain of coronavirus that has already replicated five times since its discovery last weekend.

The snap lockdown has won the support of Scott Morrison but been criticised by peak business groups as an over-reaction given South Australia recorded just two new cases on Wednesday, taking the total cluster discovered since Sunday to 22.

Premier Steven Marshall said the nature of the virus and the vast spread of hot spots across roughly a third of Adelaide’s suburbs meant drastic action was required to head off a longer lockdown that would have a graver effect on jobs and the economy.

Arriving at his news conference in a face mask — now compulsory for all South Australians when outside on the few activities still permitted — Mr Marshall billed the lockdown as a “community pause” to break the back of a fast-replicating cluster that health authorities feared could spiral out of control.

 

“There is no second chance to stop a second wave,” Mr Marshall said. “We want to stamp it out ­before it takes hold in South Australia and ruins our economy. We’ve got one chance: this. We have caught this cluster very early. We know where the links to this cluster are. We have an opportunity to stop the spread of this disease and to stamp out this cluster.”

The snap 12.30pm announcement sparked panic buying across Adelaide and even in rural South Australia. Police deployed officers to maintain order at packed supermarkets.

Almost every South Australian business is now closed including shopping malls, retail, construction, restaurants and take-away, pubs, cafes, open inspections, elective surgery, along with every school and the state’s three universities. Supermarkets and bottle shops will remain open.

Residents are instructed to remain indoors, with exercise also banned, and any person who must leave to do essential food shopping or perform essential work must wear a mask when outside.

Mr Morrison spoke to Mr Marshall on his return from Tokyo on Wednesday and remained in contact with Health Minister Greg Hunt and Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly while on the 48-hour overseas trip.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announces the lockdown in Adelaide on Wednesday. Picture: David Mariuz

“The establishment of a pre-emptive and temporary six-day lockdown to keep South Australians safe and stay ahead of the outbreak draws on lessons from earlier outbreak experiences,” Mr Morrison said.

“We will continue to support South Australia and the SA government in every way we can as they deal with this most recent outbreak. I want to thank South Australians for their patience and co-operation.”

Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, a South Australian senator whose wife Courtney Morcombe is Mr Marshall’s chief of staff, said that by going hard and early the hope was the state could “really crush the outbreak” so it did not face months of lockdown measures.

Having all borders except Western Australia’s open by Christmas was “not completely” off the cards, Senator Birmingham insisted, because the Marshall government had acted “early and strongly” to contain the cluster.

South Australians line up in their cars to be tested for coronavirus at Mundy Street, Port Adelaide, on Wednesday. Picture: Emma Brasier

The Prime Minister’s support for the harsh restrictions put him at odds with the Business Council of Australia, which said the lockdown was another blow for business and the response needed to be proportionate to the risk.

“Local outbreaks aren’t a surprise,” BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

“This is a highly contagious virus and we have to live alongside it. What matters most is that we have the right systems in place to manage and contain outbreaks.’’

While the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry backed the “reasonable” six-day time-frame, chief executive James Pearson said a more nimble and targeted approach should allow free movement between areas in South Australia that did not have any community transmission.

“The shutdown of SA will be a bitter pill to swallow for businesses across the state,” Mr Pearson said.

“More proportionate measures, which apply contact tracing and localised shutdowns and excludes remote towns, could reduce the overall harm to business.

“The NSW government has shown that effective contact tracing and local shutdowns work, and lessens the impact to the state economy.”

While South Australia recorded just two new cases on Wednesday, Chief Medical Officer Nicola Spurrier explained that this strain of the virus was fast-replicating and already up to its fifth generation in the community.

With more than 50 public places listed as hot spots where infected people had travelled in the past fortnight, health authorities are worried they simply cannot process the vast number of people seeking tests. Testing centres across the city and suburbs have had huge queues since the cases were revealed on Sunday.

Despite the small number of confirmed cases there are more than 4000 South Australians in mandatory quarantine on account of having visited the same places as infected persons.

“The other characteristic of the cases we’ve seen so far is they’ve had minimal symptoms, and sometimes no symptoms, but have been able to pass it on to other people,” Professor Spurrier said.

“We need to stop the virus right at this point. This is still very early days in the cluster. All positive cases have been linked and that’s a phenomenal effort.”

Much of the concern about the outbreak stems from a pizza bar in the western suburb of Woodville where an infected security guard from the Peppers medi-hotel also worked part-time. That pizza bar is now at the centre of transmission fears, even for customers who ordered home delivery.

Professor Spurrier urged anyone who had ordered food from the pizza bar from November 6 to 16 to get tested even if they had no symptoms.

Mr Marshall urged all South Australians to get behind the changes to break the back of the cluster. “I am asking you to rise to the challenge today,” he said.

“We can and must follow the health advice. We need to continue to move very quickly.”

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said regional travel would be banned and restrictions would not be adjusted until early next week but only if the state had got on top of the spread.

“The changes that are occurring now as a circuit breaker are quite comprehensive and will have an impact on virtually every member of the community,” he said.