One new infection in SA overnight as new restrictions come in to tackle outbreak

South Australia’s COVID outbreak continues to worsen, with fears the state could be facing a second-wave growing.

While the state government recorded just one new case overnight, 18 new cases were recorded on Monday. The state’s number of active cases now sits at 35 after months with no new cases.

Health alerts have been issued for 41 venues across the state, and include five supermarkets, three shopping centres, two schools, an aged care hope, Yatala Labour Prison, and the Lyell McEwin Hostital.

SA Premier Steven Marshall said that while the one new case was a “positive” sign, the state had to remain vigilant.

“We’re not through this, we’re not through this by a long way,” Mr Marshall told ABC radio on Tuesday morning.

Mr Marshall also confirmed he has accepted Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s offer of deploying defence force personnel, national contact tracing teams, and an aged-care response centre team who will now work with state experts to stamp out the virus.

“The advice is go hard and go early, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Mr Marshall said.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said the state is going hard and early. Picture: Kelly Barnes/Getty

On Friday, Mr Morrison announced that all states and territories with the exception of West Australia had agreed to open state borders by Christmas. But on Monday, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania the Northern Territory, and West Australia announced they would require any travellers coming in from South Australia would be required to undergo mandatory hotel quarantine. NSW announced that it would not demand hotel quarantine.

“Every time there’s an outbreak you can’t shut down borders, disrupt lives, disrupt businesses, and we need to have confidence not just in our own system but the system in other states to be able to get on top of the virus,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday.

The outbreak is believed to have originated from a hotel quarantine case and spread among the members of a large family living in the Parafield Gardens region.

Following the outbreak, SA Premier Steven Marshall announced a reintroduction of restrictions, including the closure of gyms and play centres, a temporary suspension to community sport, and limiting patrons in pubs, clubs and restaurants.

In addition to wreaking havoc with thousands of families hoping to reunite for Christmas, the outbreak also risks chaos for the summer cricket season, with a number of major matches scheduled to take place in Adelaide.

MORE THAN 3000 TESTED

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said there was well over 3000 people tested in the past 24 hours. “It’s early days in this cluster but what we can say is we think this is an early pickup,” Dr Spurrier said on Tuesday morning.

Dr Spurrier said testing results revealed there had not been widespread community transmission.

“What I want people to do is continue to get tested if they wake up with a sore throat or runny nose.”

“What we want people to do is monitor for symptoms.... even if it’s just a sniffle don’t think ‘Oh it’s just hayfever’ go and get tested.

She said people should consider if they needed to go out in the coming days.

Dr Spurrier could not confirm how many people were currently in quarantine.

“I would rather overreach and have more people in quarantine as this pans out.”

She said the coming days were crucial in knowing how long restrictions would be in place.

“If there’s been significant spread it will have to go on for longer.”

As the other states closed to SA and more troops were called in, several schools closed and health alerts were issued for swathes of the northern suburbs.

CLOSE CONTACT CHECKING

The cluster’s source is a female cleaner, aged in her 50s, who worked at the Peppers medi-hotel in Waymouth Street, before she unwittingly triggering the state’s first community transmission case in more than six months.

The cleaner, believed to be from a large Indian family, is thought to have infected her husband, aged in his 60s, and her two elderly parents.

The pair, both aged in their 80s, were on Monday listed in a stable condition in a special Royal Adelaide Hospital COVID ward as a precaution due to their ages.

As of Monday night, at least 167 close contacts were being checked for symptoms. Dozens more are in Adelaide medi-hotels, while a further 96 police officers were isolating. A worker at Yatala prison has also tested positive, sparking concerns about the state’s jail system.