Coronavirus: shock as quarantine hits border travellers

Passengers on a Sunday flight from Adelaide to Perth were shocked to be told they had to go into two weeks’ quarantine on ­arrival.

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens at the State Admin Building in Adelaide. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Passengers on a Sunday flight from Adelaide to Perth were shocked to be told they had to go into two weeks’ quarantine on ­arrival, despite the West Australian government only hours earlier assuring South Australians they could enter the state without having to isolate.

From 12.01am on Saturday when WA’s closed border changed to a controlled border, residents from all states and territories except NSW and Victoria had been free to travel to WA without quarantining for two weeks.

The passengers, who were on a flight landing mid-afternoon Perth time, were due to be met by WA police and told to undergo a COVID-19 test and self-isolate for 14 days after disembarking.

The WA Chief Health Officer was forced to make the change in light of news of three new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in SA after a quarantine hotel worker infected their family members.

An 80-year-old woman is among the three cases.

In a sign it will reimpose border controls quickly if necessary, the McGowan government said its health experts consulted with SA Health and ordered the changes immediately.

South Australians crossing the Nullarbor by vehicle will face the same restrictions. This is despite hundreds of incoming travellers from states other than Victoria and NSW being waved through Eucla and Kununurra road checkpoints since midnight on Friday, when WA’s hard border was lifted after 222 days.

Only a few hours earlier, Premier Mark McGowan was praising the efficiency and safety with which WA had lifted its borders, saying no incoming traveller had failed a health screening or temperature test. He said passengers were processed without incident; several requested COVID-19 testing but were asymptomatic.

Mr McGowan said he was moved to see airport scenes of mothers greeting daughters, and grandparents reunited with grandchildren after being separated for as long as eight months.

Anyone arriving from SA at Perth Airport will be tested for COVID-19 on arrival and directed to self-quarantine for 14 days in a suitable premise. Road travellers from SA will also be given a direction to self-quarantine for 14 days and take a COVID-19 test on Day 2 and Day 11.

The government has had to scramble to contact hundreds of SA arrivals at the weekend, with 289 passengers on board two Qantas flights on Saturday let in without conditions.

Another 266 passengers were expected on two more Qantas flights by late Sunday.

They will be contacted by WA officials and required to be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours and self-quarantine until results are returned.

“We will monitor the position in SA very closely and strengthen measures if required,” a statement said.

“We understand these changes will cause frustration for many people but these steps are being taken on the best health ­advice to protect everyone.”

SA’s Chief Public Health Officer, Nicola Spurrier, revealed the 80-year-old woman was diagnosed on Saturday along with a woman in her 50s and a man in his 60s who returned positive test results on Sunday.

“One of those people works in our medi-hotels,” Professor Spurrier said. “This is where we consider the source to be.”

Urgent contact tracing is under way to track potential links to the source of infection.

The elderly woman was tested at the Lyell McEwin Hospital emergency department and is in hospital in a stable condition.

Despite wearing a mask at the time, 90 people, including hos­pital staff members and patients, have been directed to quarantine.

Professor Spurrier said the new cases were “very troubling”.