COVID-19

154 COVID-19 cases confirmed as testing requirements eased for interstate arrivals

Premier Steven Marshall, Professor Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens addressed the public with the latest COVID-19 news.

Premier Steven Marshall, Professor Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens addressed the South Australian public with the latest COVID-19 news.

There have been 154 new cases of COVID-19 reported today. There have been 1,554 cases reported in
South Australia to date.


Today’s cases are 21 children, two teenagers, 68 women aged between 18 and 62 and 63 men aged
between 18 and 65.


Of these, one case acquired their infection overseas, 16 cases acquired their infection within South
Australia and are known contacts of a positive case, seven acquired their infection in South Australia
with contacts unknown, three cases acquired their infection interstate and 127 cases are under
investigation.


Three men in their 30s, 50s and 60s and two women in their 30s and 90s are at the Royal Adelaide
Hospital.


SA Health has a joint protocol in place with the Commonwealth to ensure we can respond quickly and
effectively to COVID-19 cases in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF). We also work collaboratively
with the aged care sector in our outbreak response.


To date, six Residential Aged Care Facility residents have tested positive to COVID-19, all from one site.
Of those residents, one is being cared for in hospital and the remaining five are receiving specialised
care at the facility with the support of SA Health.


When an RACF resident tests positive to COVID-19, a Response Coordination Team is activated and a
Health Rapid Response Team can be deployed to site to assess the situation and provide support as
required.

SA Health works with the aged care provider to ensure the resident receives the best possible
care and that other residents are protected against the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

In many cases, SA Health will be able to support the RACF to continue to care for the resident in their own home, while
transfer to hospital is available where required.


SA Health encourage anyone who has been out in the community to monitor closely for symptoms and get
tested as soon as they appear.

Professor Nicola Spurrier announced 154 new cases have been recorded today.

“We’re seeing more cases within our community,” said Professor Spurrier.

“30% of cases came from interstate.”

 “10% were international arrivals last week.”

Most of today’s cases are unvaccinated.

SA Health has continued to test wastewaters across the city. Regional Bordertown has strong positive results but no cases have presented in the region. Locals have been advised to get tested. 

“The real focus now is on saving lives and focusing on people that are not vaccinated who are cases, who are in high-risk categories and high-risk settings.”

Positive cases may receive a text message rather than a phone call as case numbers continue to rise. 

“We do advise we will keep up to date the exposure sites on our website.”

“It is pleasing to see that people are looking at it and going to get tested,” said Prof Spurrier.

“If you’re eligible for the booster please go get the booster,” said Professor Spurrier. 

“All South Aussies would agree with me that we don’t want to close borders if we don’t have to.”

A mask mandate was discussed but not put into place. 

“We know its important to be wearing masks.”

The Premier apologised for the long wait times for COVID-19 tests and announced effectively immediately travellers from NSW, VIC and ACT will no longer require a test on entry.

“We have gone from around 2000 tests a day a few weeks ago to now 20,000 tests a day,” said the Premier.

SA Health has received advice to reduce the testing requirements for people coming interstate who do not have symptoms. 

“Effective immediately those people coming from interstate do not need to be tested on arrival if they do not have symptoms,” Mr Marshall said.

“They will still be required to have a test 72 hours before departure.”

He said staff would be walking the testing lines and telling those from interstate they can leave the line immediately.

“We are basically going almost car to car telling people that if they are from interstate they can leave the line.”

The Premier announced he expects a massive reduction in lines today. 

“There is no need to line up, make a booking and show up, waiting a very short time …. And we are reducing the need to get tested.” 

“We are advising people who do have symptoms to isolate and book into testing sites online, there are 12 testing sites you can book in at the moment.”

“We’re not encouraging people to sit in their cars for hours they can book online to go and have their test.”

You do not need to be in that line, make a booking online via the SA health site,” said the Premier. 

“If visitors do have symptoms, we encourage people to isolate immediately and book in a test online on the SA Health website.”

The Premier announced pathology results are still coming back in a very short time compared to anywhere else in the country.

“We want to avoid these lengthy lineups that potentially discourage people from doing the right thing.”

“I think we’ll see lines reduce today.”

The Chief Public Health Officer did, however, say “The close contacts of cases need to continue to get tested but as things evolve over coming weeks we may change testing requirements,” regardless of whether the individuals are interstate arrivals or not.

The Premier continued “one advantage we have in SA is that we are several weeks behind other states we have seen a massive surge in their daily infections but low numbers presenting in hospital.”

South Australia has the equivalent of 400 beds across the extended health network however as of today only 5 cases are in hospital. 

It takes a week to two weeks once increased case numbers are reported that we see hospitalisations rise.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said interstate lockouts currently aren’t on the table.

Mr Stevens spoke about the covid positive teen.

The 19-year-old covid positive man who was active in the community over the weekend will not be prosecuted as QR codes are strictly for contact tracing purposes.

If you receive any advice whether it be SMS etc that informs you that are covid positive then you should follow the health advice, isolate, make contact with SA Health and follow the instructions provided. By ignoring this you’re compromising the community This advice is provided for very specific reasons and people should follow it.”

There were 2.3million check-ins yesterday, no drop-offs from days prior. 

“Most people are doing the right thing and that’s evident through this data,” said Commissioner Stevens. 

Important things to note:

You may not always receive a call, SMS or email from SA Health.

You must follow the relevant health advice even if you have not been contacted.

If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild, please seek testing as soon as possible.

For more information on health advice and requirements for households, visit www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/COVIDcontacttracing.

Find your nearest testing site at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/COVIDtesting

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