Coronavirus: Families will be first in line to benefit from any relaxation of SA’s isolation restrictions

Families in SA may soon be permitted to have extended gatherings with grandparents and cousins if the state continues its strong showing against coronavirus,

South Australian grandparents Jill and David Stevens talk with their granddaughters Amy, 16, and Emily, 12, on Skype. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Families in South Australia may soon be permitted to have extended gatherings with grandparents and cousins if the state continues its strong showing against the coronavirus threat.

In what would be the first significant easing of restrictions around the country, SA Health officials said yesterday they were becoming cautiously optimistic that families could potentially resume socialising and dining with each other, as they had done before the virus.

While Premier Steven Marshall stressed that he was “not currently entertaining the idea of lifting restrictions”, the state’s medical chiefs are so buoyed by SA’s performance that for the first time yesterday they outlined a path to an easing of social distancing for families.

Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Michael Cusack said that while existing rules needed to remain for now, family-based restrictions would be among the first to be lifted if the coronavirus continued to be contained in SA, where just 12 new cases have been recorded over the past five days.

In a bullish assessment of the performance of SA — which has the highest rate of COVID-19 testing in Australia and which, internationally, is second only to the United Arab Emirates — Dr Cusack said he believed SA could “break the chain” of transmission and “get rid” of the virus from the state.

“Now that things have moved on and we are seeing these low numbers of cases, I think we are starting to think that this is something that we can potentially get rid of in the state, excepting that there will no doubt be people coming across borders and so forth where the disease may still arrive and it might blow up again in pockets,” Dr Cusack said.

“But with the amount of testing that we’re able to do and the contact-tracing that we can follow up with, even if we were getting small pockets of outbreaks we would hope to be able to keep ahead of the virus and isolate people who have been in contact even before they’ve become symptomatic, and that way we can break the chain of transmission of the virus.”

Dr Cusack said if this success continued, family distancing would be one of the first things to be wound back.

“This has been a difficult time for people, particularly when you can’t be with your families or your loved ones,” he said.

“Within the state, we can certainly look at which restrictions are possible (to lift). Potential is the word. At this point, it is difficult to say that we will be making changes in specific areas, but as has been discussed in recent days, this is very much under review on a daily basis. As soon as it is feasible to make relaxations, I suspect that it will be the kind of things you are talking about in terms of families that may be early on.”

Mr Marshall told The Australian he was very mindful of the impact restrictions were having on families.

“My heart goes out to the thousands and thousands of families who have had to reconsider visiting their loved ones over the past few weeks,” he said. “I really do understand how upsetting these decisions are.

“These are challenging times for families and businesses alike, and we will continue to act swiftly on the advice of the health experts who have helped guide SA into the strong position we are in.”

SA has a less onerous policing regime than the eastern states, with SA Police only vowing to act against gatherings of 10 or more people, provided that smaller groups are still practising social distancing.

There is also no official requirement for people aged over 70 to self isolate within their families, but the majority of SA families have done so voluntarily, including Malvern retirees Jilly Stevens, 75, and David Stevens, 77, who suspended their catch-ups with their three children and four grandchildren more than two weeks ago.

Mr and Mrs Stevens have a son, Craig, in Sydney who is single; a married daughter Julie in Bellingen, NSW, who has two sons, Finn, 15, and Noah, 12; and a married daughter Karen in Adelaide, who has two daughters, Amy, 16 and Emily, 12.

“We pick Amy and Emily up from school at least once a week and take them to a coffee shop and talk about what’s been happening during their day,” Ms Stevens told The Australian.

“It’s a special time for us as grandparents when we get them on our own one-on-one because we really connect with them. But we understand the need for caution and as a family we all came to the decision to self distance a bit over a couple of weeks ago. We have seen the girls a couple of times from a distance out of the car, and we are using Skype, but we are staying away for now.”

Ms Stevens said she and her husband had a trip planned next month to visit Craig in Sydney and to see their daughter and son-in-law at their new home in Bellingen, all of which had to be cancelled due to the interstate flight bans and lockdowns.

“We miss not seeing them all, obviously, but we understand why,” she said. “The only thing is that when things are lifted we have to make sure it doesn’t happen too suddenly, so let’s wait and see. We know why we are doing it.”