Queensland has joined Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia in imposing restrictions on travellers from South Australia, with an outbreak of coronavirus in Adelaide north now linked to 17 cases of the infection.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is the latest state leader to confirm the new border closure, with anyone returning to Queensland from Adelaide urged to self-quarantine and get tested.
Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed NSW will keep its borders open to South Australia.
“We’re confident that if that happened in NSW, we’d get on top of it, and that’s what’s happening in South Australia – they’re getting on top of it,” she said.
South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier revealed the spike on Monday after SA Health on Sunday found three new locally-acquired cases.
The new cases were picked up on Saturday after a woman in her 80s went to Adelaide’s Lyell McEwin Hospital for testing and was hospitalised.
Two of her family members, a woman in her 50s and a man in his 60s, also tested positive.
One of the pair worked in a medi-hotel used by people travelling into the state and local residents who can’t quarantine at home.
Dr Spurrier confirmed the Port Adelaide Hungry Jack’s has been closed for deep cleaning, as well as Mawson Lakes Primary School and Preschool and the Parafield Plaza Supermarket.
Dr Spurrier said testing conducted overnight on Sunday included other members of the 80-year-old woman’s extended family.
“We just kept getting positives coming off the machine,” she told ABC radio on Monday, adding it was clear the cluster was linked to a medi-hotel.
“We haven’t got the genomics yet, but I’m absolutely certain it has come from a medi-hotel,” she said.
The 80-year-old woman lives independently and is the mother of one of the younger pair, who are in a relationship.
Contact tracing is also underway for about 90 staff and patients at the Lyell McEwin Hospital who may have come into contact with the older woman.
The woman had also visited Parafield Plaza Supermarket in Adelaide’s north on Thursday while infectious.
A South Australian aged care facility in the city has been placed into lockdown, with two aged care workers among the 17 new cases who both worked while infectious.
All staff working at SA’s quarantine hotels have been ordered to undertake mandatory virus testing every seven days.
“It’s obvious that this is the highest risk in Australia right now is this risk of importation (of the virus) in our quarantine hotels,” Dr Spurrier said on Sunday.
The new rule includes police, nurses, concierge, cleaners and security guards.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said his state will join the Northern Territory in declaring South Australia a hotspot.
“I’m confident SA will get on top of this, and if there’s anything we can do, large or small, we of course stand ready to do that,” he said in a Monday morning press conference.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the South Australian outbreak was a “timely reminder” that closed borders don’t protect you from the virus.
“There are no absolute fail-safes in this,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Monday afternoon. “The virus hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still there, and it will seek to exploit any vulnerability, however small or great.”
Asked whether this would jeopardise the chance of borders opening before Christmas, Mr Morrison said he “hopes not”.
“While the events in South Australia and in the last 48 hours are of course of very serious concern and are treated as such … I think it is important to understand that Australia is doing incredibly well, compared to all the other countries, but one of the reasons that we do is we are not compliant about it. We are very cautious and attentive to what needs to happen.
“That will be the case in South Australia as all states and territories you would expect it to be.”
New cluster casts doubt on borders
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt is confident South Australian authorities will bring the outbreak under control.
He has offered to send Australian Defence Force troops and a national incident centre is being set up.
“If more is required, more will be provided,” Mr Hunt told the ABC on Monday.
“But these are the sorts of challenges that if we trade or engage with the world, if we bring Australians home, we will face, in a world where there’s over half a million cases a day.
“Having these strong testing, tracing and isolation systems are absolutely critical, and South Australia – on all the evidence – does have exactly that.”
The cluster has already caused major disruptions, with Western Australia making a snap decision to reimpose border restrictions.
Mr Hunt said there was no medical basis for any state or territory to remain closed.
He said coronavirus cases were bound to flare up across the country at different times but there were strong systems in place to deal with any outbreak.
Victoria has now gone 17 days without any coronavirus cases or deaths.
But Mr Hunt, who hails from Victoria, is reluctant to give the state government credit for keeping the state in lockdown while bringing a second wave under control.
“We always supported, reluctantly and regretfully, going into lockdown once the contact tracing system wasn’t able to cope in Victoria,” he said.
“There were some differences about the speed at the end, particularly once they were well below their case level that NSW was able to manage.
“We felt that perhaps we had more confidence in their system than they did on the way out.”
He and Prime Minister Scott Morrison are visiting Victoria to announce a new, hi-tech vaccine manufacturing facility will be developed in Melbourne.
The federal government has struck a $1 billion deal with Seqirus, a subsidiary of CSL, to rapidly manufacture vaccines in response to future health pandemics.
The pair will also meet Mr Andrews and are likely to discuss reopening the Melbourne Airport to returning travellers from overseas.
– Additional reporting by AAP.
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