Coronavirus: South Australia dances to its own beat … and wins

There were surreal scenes in Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Square last Sunday, which the city’s detractors would hold up as proof of its ­capacity for weirdness.

SA Premier Steven Marshall with cabaret performer Hans.

There were surreal scenes in Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Square last Sunday, which the city’s detractors would hold up as proof of its ­capacity for weirdness.

In a quirky gesture celebrating the impending release of 370 ­Indian-Australians from a fortnight’s quarantine at the Pullman Hotel, Premier Steven Marshall was joined by the sequin-clad cabaret performer Hans, known locally as “Berlin’s Boy Wonder”, for an impromptu concert in the Square.

To the sounds of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, Hans, the Premier and the state’s highly ­regarded Chief Medical Officer, Nicola Spurrier, danced, sang and waved as the hotel’s residents watched in delight from their balconies on the eve of their release.

It was a moment that epitomised the state’s determination to dance to a different beat in tackling the coronavirus.

Despite the obvious natural advantages of a smaller population and fewer interstate and overseas visitors, SA has done a particularly good job in flattening the curve, achieving one of the lowest rates of infection yet with the highest level of freedom of any Australian state.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens and Mr Marshall give the ultimate credit for this approach to one person — Dr Spurrier, who has argued all along that safely maximising human freedoms within the pandemic would be vital to ensuring compliance, and keeping South Australians relatively sane.

Mr Stevens told The Weekend Australian it was his role to craft a legal framework for public behaviour based on the CMO’s advice.

On the basis of Dr Spurrier’s ­assessment, police have permitted gatherings of up to 10 people provided social distancing is being ­observed for the duration of the pandemic, while also letting people socialise and exercise in parks and on beaches.

Restaurants and cafes have also remained open for takeaway, and Mr Stevens also reversed his closure of winery cellar doors for takeaway wine more than a month ago on the basis of advice from the CMO. At no stage have schools been closed, save for isolated cases where infections had occurred. “We have got a courageous CMO, who sat in the room with us and spoke about what was absolutely necessary in order to limit the spread,” Mr Stevens told The Weekend Australian. “We contributed from a compliance point of view in terms of what was ­realistically achievable, but also what would keep people onside.

“We made the decision as a group that if you go too hard too early you have got nowhere else to go. And what we were seeing with the disease’s transmission did not warrant the clampdown that we were seeing in other states.”

Mr Stevens said he had been heartened that police had to issue only about 130 fines for noncompliance, despite visiting more than 26,000 businesses and thousands of private homes to ensure people who had been ordered to quarantine were self-isolating. The state has also had none of the confusion surrounding people using beaches or parks.

“We cop a bit from the eastern seaboard for being a sleepy ­regional centre, but I think that our sense of community is stronger than what you might find in some other bigger places,” he said.

“We were dealing with ordinary members of the community who had been put in an extraordinary situation. So our approach had to be one of support, education and encouragement. We would only take the law-and-order ­approach when people were deliberately ignoring instructions or advice.”

Mr Marshall said that at the behest of his CMO, SA came up with a three-pronged strategy — push out the peak, build up the health response through aggressive testing and, crucially, maintain public confidence in the process.

“We have been fortunate to have the highest level of compliance with the lowest level of restrictions in the country,” he said.

“We were under a lot of pressure to put stronger directions and even laws in place to stop people’s movement. We decided instead to explain to them why it was important that they don’t move around. People fell into line and the state came out with flying colours.”

Dr Spurrier says the state’s biggest challenge now might be complacency, after SA had celebrated a fortnight with no new cases of infection. But she said the discovery of one new case on Thursday showed the fight was far from over.