South Australia will lift the COVID-19 border restrictions for travellers from the Greater Sydney area from Sunday as the state zeroes in on a “baseline” level of local virus measures.
From 31 January, travellers from the Greater Sydney area to South Australia will no longer be required to quarantine. However, they must have a coronavirus test on days one, five and 12m and isolate until they receive a negative result from the day one test.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the change could be reviewed if any new cases emerged in Sydney during the next two days, but he said he was confident it would reach SA’s threshold of 14 days without community transmission.
NSW reported no new cases again on Thursday, for the 11th day in a row, which has also led to today’s announcement that Queensland will be opening to Greater Sydney from Monday 1 February.
“This is the most reasonable step we can put in place that allows that freedom of movement between NSW and South Australia,” he said.
“We’re trying to find that middle ground where we’re protecting South Australians but enabling as much travel as possible between states and territories.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens
Mr Stevens said SA would also remove the requirement for Sydney travellers to get tested as soon as possible.
At that point, the freedom of movement between SA and other states was likely to be at its highest since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
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The measures in place until Sunday prevent people from Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong from entering SA and have been in place since the COVID-19 outbreak in the city’s northern beaches area.
No other restrictions are in place for travellers from any other states or territories.
The commissioner said South Australia was also “really close” to reaching a point where local restrictions would remain for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t know if we’re going to see too many more changes in relation to what we can free up while at the same time managing COVID if it does come into South Australia,” he said.
“We’ll continue to revisit that and we’re looking at what a baseline level of restrictions and activity might look like and formalising that so everyone has a clear understanding of what that is.”
Mr Stevens said police were also providing advice to the government on when the state’s major emergency declaration could be revoked.
But he said under the current rules it was needed to enforce existing measures, including the use of masks, QR codes and the requirement for virus testing.
SA reported no new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and has no active infections.
Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Mike Cusack said the state had now gone seven days with no new cases, either in the community or in hotel quarantine.
But he urged anyone with even the mildest of symptoms to get checked, describing a recent fall in testing numbers as “cause for anxiety” among health officials.
Source: AAP.