Coronavirus: SA Premier Steven Marshall warns on knee-jerk response

Australia must not be panicked into closing borders and ‘smashing the national economy’ every time the coronavirus flares, Steven Marshall said.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall in Adelaide on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Australia must not be panicked into closing borders and “smashing the national economy” every time the coronavirus flares, Steven Marshall said as three states shut their borders to South Australia despite it recording just five new cases on Tuesday.

The SA Premier’s comments were backed by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, who said the state was managing the outbreak well and that the cluster — which now numbers 20 — did not constitute a hotspot.

“Our message is very clear; there is a national hotspot definition,” Mr Hunt said. “South Australia has not reached that. There has been no advice that any state or territory should be closed to any state or territory.”

Mr Marshall said he understood why some states jumped on Monday when cases appeared to be surging in SA but argued that contact tracing and mass testing was the best way to deal with what would hopefully be a hastily contained threat.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Marshall commended NSW, Victoria and the ACT for remaining open to SA visitors, but urged the other states and the NT to review their border closures on a scientific basis using infection data provided to their health departments.

“We are going to be living with this disease for a very long period of time,” Mr Marshall said.

“That means we have to invest very heavily in contact tracing and testing capability so that we can stay on top of these outbreaks and not smash our national economy.”

Mr Marshall said he understood why Queensland, Tasmania, WA and the NT moved so swiftly on Monday when the number of cases jumped from three to 17 in a dramatic 7am announcement that caused widespread alarm.

However, the picture in SA is now less dramatic, with the government announcing on Tuesday there were only five more cases, all of them traced back to close contacts of the medi-hotel cleaner at the centre of the outbreak who is believed to have caught the virus at the Pepper Hotel.

“The situation did look extraordinarily worrying, especially in the early part of (Monday) when we were seeing the numbers escalate,” Mr Marshall said.

“We perfectly accept that individual states need to make their own decision. But ultimately we can’t have a situation where every single time there is an example of community transmission we shut up the entire country. We need to think about how we learn to live with this disease.”

Mr Marshall said SA had already proven it could trace and contain previous clusters, including outbreaks in the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Airport and The­barton Senior College.

He said SA had been the swiftest state to reopen its borders earlier this year earlier this year and had done so on the basis of scientific information provided to SA. He said he hoped those states could now return the favour.

“When that information is provided, we hope they will lift that because we know it’s in the nation’s interest,” Mr Marshall said.

“We are hopeful they are going to be able to make really good, informed decisions about the level of risk for people who have been in SA going into their states.”

Tourism and business groups in SA are despairing over the border closures, which they fear will jeopardise desperately needed visits and spending up to Christmas.

Business SA chief executive Martin Haese said the border closures could not be justified. “We will decimate much of Australia’s tourism industry if we continue with sporadic, knee-jerk reactions to our borders,” he said.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said the “medium risk” status his government had attached to SA would remain “at least until the end of the week” — with all arrivals from SA quarantining for 14 days, either in their own choice of accommodation or a government-run quarantine hotel.

While praising SA health authorities’ efforts, Mr Gutwein left open the option of trying to steal the Adelaide Test for Hobart should the situation worsen. “We will engage with Cricket Australia if there’s an opportunity,” he said.