Following this morning’s press conference with the state government, SA Health has provided further clarification into SA’s Covid road-map to freedom.
A formal procedure plan for businesses can be accessed here.
Premier Stephen Marshall today announced that South Australians will only have to quarantine for seven days if they are deemed a close contact of a COVID-19 case, with fully vaccinated casual contacts having to isolate until their first negative test.
Once our borders open next week, covid case contacts will be categorised into four categories in order to figure out what testing and quarantine requirements are needed, through the state’s ‘Test, Trace, Isolate and Quarantine’ plan.
Contacts will be either classed as a ‘low-risk casual contact’, ‘casual contact’, ‘vaccinated close contact’ or ‘unvaccinated close contact’.
SA Health will ensure low-risk casual contacts, casual contacts or close contacts of someone who is Covid positive are reached with advice then provided on what the next steps will be in regards to quarantine and testing.
The group the contact fits in will be determined by the exposure time, how close the contact was to the case, if a mask was worn, and the exposure environment. A low-risk casual contact is one where both the case and the contact was wearing a mask and was socially distanced at the time of interaction.
A ‘casual contact’ is person who has had no physical contact with a case or at a significant distance and for a short amount of time. This includes passing the person in the corridor (if unvaccinated) or walking through a mall masked for less than fifteen minutes.
A ‘close contact’ is a person who’s had at least fifteen minutes of face-to-face contact or physical contact with a covid positive person. This applies for situations where social distancing was not in place, or where there’s been a longer exposure time, such as being within the same household.
This model will come into effect on Tuesday, November 23rd and will be in place while our vaccination rate is between 80 and 90 per cent of those over 16.
Venues and business will still be required to be cleaned following the confirmation of a positive covid case entering the premises. If the business is notified during opening hours, they may need to close for a short time to undertake cleaning, but can re-open as soon as the clean’s complete.
A formal procedure plan for businesses will also be in place and can be accessed here.
If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild, please seek testing as soon as possible.
Find your nearest testing site at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/COVIDtesting
More information is available at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/COVIDcontacttracing
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