Coronavirus: SA isolated from the world, yet buoyed by no new cases

South Australia is now isolated from the rest of the world and almos­t all of Australia, with international flights cancelled until ­December and Victoria shutting its border.

A man defies the lockdown at Adelaide’s Glenelg Beach on Thursday, while most South Australians remained inside. Picture: Getty Images

South Australia is now isolated from the rest of the world and almos­t all of Australia, with international flights cancelled until ­December and Victoria shutting its border as the state entered the first day of a six-day lockdown.

Despite the state recording no new cases overnight, with the Parafield cluster standing at 23, Premier Steven Marshall said the hard lockdown would continue into next week — but promised it would not extend beyond the scheduled six-day period.

His vow came as Adelaide came to resemble a ghost town, with all shops and restaurants closed, most businesses shut or operati­ng remotely, almost zero traffic and just a smattering of essentia­l workers on the streets.

A handful of residents defied the ban on leaving their homes, with a lone swimmer at Glenelg dipping his dreadlocked head in the water to escape the 36c heat before scurrying off to avoid SA Police.

But while South Australians overwhelmingly back the lockdown, the government has been forced to address questions about why it was that a medi-hotel security guard was also working a second job at the Woodville Pizza Bar at the centre of the cluster.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who revealed on Thursday that his daughter has had to cancel her wedding this weekend due to the lockdown, became agitated at a press conference when those arrangements were raised.

Mr Stevens said it was unfair for people to suggest that medi-hotel staff should live their entire lives outside work in virtual lockdown.

The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry has recommended medi-hotel workers should not have second­ jobs. But Mr Stevens said it would not be feasible to have such a restriction in SA as it would ­require that everyone working in quarantine, including police and Australian Defence Force soldiers, would be prevented from having any contact with anyone outside of their quarantine work.

“I would suggest to you that it comes down to best endeavours,” he said. “They have lives beyond their responsibilities in a medi-hotel. It simply would not be possible to bring in the required number of people.”

While there are 23 confirmed cases and 17 suspected cases linked to the Parafield cluster, these people visited locations across roughly one-third of Adelaide’s suburbs, with 2000 contacts or relatives of contacts already identified but thousands more unidentified.

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the six-day lockdown was designed to take the entire population out of circulation for six days to stop any further spread.

Mr Marshall spoke to federal officials on Wednesday night to have international flights cancelled. Domestic flights are operating from NSW, Victoria and the ACT: other states and the Northern Territory closed their borders.