South Australia slowly out of Covid-19 lockdown, ‘no rush or relapse’

South Australia will emerge as scheduled from its seven-day lockdown at midnight on Tuesday but tough restrictions will remain.

South Australian chief health officer Nicola Spurrier. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

South Australia will emerge as scheduled from its seven-day lockdown at midnight on Tuesday but tough restrictions will remain to avoid a repeat of a statewide closure that ripped $200m from the local economy.

With Adelaide having resembled a ghost town for the past week thanks to uniform compliance by the public, Premier Steven Marshall credited the community with abiding by restrictions, swiftly embracing the use of face masks and limiting movement to essential shopping.

He said the response to the lockdown had been “overwhelming”, with more than 99 per cent of people abiding by the order to stay indoors and not gather with family or friends.

“I am very proud of South Australia and I am very grateful to all South Australians for the way they have adhered to the restrictions,” he said.

“We have put ourselves in a very, very good position.

“We decided as a state that we didn’t want to have an extended lockdown. Every indication is that we will be moving out of the stay-at-home order at one minute past midnight Tuesday.”

The seven-day lockdown was called for 6pm last Tuesday in response to a growing cluster seeded by an Argentinian man and his daughter after he contracted the Delta variant of the virus in Sydney before returning to Adelaide.

Chief medical officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said that while SA recorded two new cases on Monday, taking the Modbury cluster to 19, all of those cases were close contacts and there was no community transmission.

None of the infected people are in ICU and only two people, both aged in their 80s, remain in hospital but are in a stable condition.

Mr Marshall defended the decision to retain many restrictions despite frustration among some business leaders at the ongoing impact.

Even when the lockdown ends, many businesses will continue to be hampered by limits on patron numbers and some will not be allowed to open at all, such as karaoke and sheesha bars.

Restaurants and pubs will be bound by a rule of one patron per 4 sqm, and dining and drinking will be available to seated patrons only. Club sports have not yet resumed and gymnasiums will be limited to one patron per 8 sqm.

Masks will remain compulsory on public transport and in aged and healthcare facilities, and are “strongly encouraged” in all other public settings.

School will return as normal from Wednesday morning, putting an end to home learning, which began by law on Thursday last week. Weddings and funerals can resume but will be limited to 50 people and households barred from gathering in groups of more than 10.

Mr Marshall said it was important the state moved slowly out of lockdown, saying the restrictions still in place were “a sensible pathway” towards normality.

“We don’t want to rush and have a relapse,” he said.

While there was strong community support for the lockdown in Adelaide, many remote towns, particularly in the west of the state, were puzzled as to why they had to be locked down at all.

Mr Marshall confirmed that his Covid Transition Committee had discussed exempting rural communities from city restrictions but the decision was taken to maintain a statewide approach, citing cases in the eastern states were the Delta variant had emerged away from the capitals.

“We have gone into this as a state and we will come out of it as a state,” he said.

Mr Marshall also expressed his sympathy for the situation in NSW but said that SA, like other states, would not surrender any of its vaccination allocation.