South Australia records seven deaths and 3715 new cases of Covid-19

South Australia has recorded seven deaths and 3715 new cases of Covid-19.

Premier Steven Marshall said six of the deaths were women aged between 60 and 100. The other was a man aged in his 90s.

“We express our sincere condolences to all of those families who have lost a loved one,” he told reporters via video, as his own isolation period continues.

Mr Marshall said some of the deaths occurred in recent days, but were only reported on Wednesday because there was not a requirement to report deaths to SA Health within a specific time frame.

“We’re just trying to tighten that up,” he said.

The number of hospitalisations has dropped to 190, with 27 people in intensive care and six of those on ventilators.

Mr Marshall said there were 524 SA Health staff who were Covid-positive, which meant there were now 892 in total who were furloughed.

From Thursday, close contacts identified from today can register on the SA Health website and pick up two free rapid antigen tests from the supersite at Southern Parklands.

It will only be mandatory to report a positive result.

If a person receives a positive result they do not need to get a PCR test.

“We see and envisage that there’ll be a large number of people switching from PCR testing to rapid antigen testing,” he said.

“I would just point out that the PCR testing is still far more accurate.

“It’s still the preferred test, but we do want to provide this alternative pathway as well.”

Regarding schooling, Mr Marshall said his preferred option was to get children back to school for face-to-face learning, but the government was still “working through various options”.

“Still a little bit of extra work to do before we’re in a position to let parents know what’s going to happen by the end of this week,” he said.