BORDERS SNAP SHUT TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Students from Covid-hit areas urged to stay home
TASMANIA has locked out yet another Australian state after South Australia announced it was enforcing a statewide lockdown from 6pm Tuesday.
Premier Peter Gutwein confirmed SA would be designated as high risk from 4pm on Tuesday, joining Victoria and New South Wales in being locked out of Tasmania because of increasing community-transmission cases of Covid.
“All of South Australia will be declared high risk, level two by Tasmania’s Director of Public Health. This means that anyone wanting to travel to Tasmania from South Australia will not be permitted to enter … unless approved as an essential traveller – including returning Tasmanians,” Mr
Gutwein said. “Anyone seeking to enter Tasmania from SA, including returning Tasmanians, will need to apply for essential status traveller to be allowed entry.”
About 3000 people who have arrived in Tasmania from South Australia since
July 8 will be required to wear a mask in public for 14 days after their arrival.
South Australia entered a snap seven-day lockdown from Tuesday evening, as the state’s Covid-19 cluster continued to grow.
Those who are Tasmanian and have been in SA since July 8 are asked to check the government’s list of high risk premises and isolate and get tested if they have been at listed exposure sites.
Tasmania’s school students and staff who have recently returned from Victoria, NSW or South Australia are to remain away from school for the rest of this week — with a decision on when they can return to be made on Friday.
As many as 250 teachers and about 1000 students are affected by the edict.
“I want to thank our students and their families and the Department of Education staff for the work they’re done to ensure that this challenging and unusual set of circumstances can be managed,” Mr Gutwein said.
He said despite the further border closures, Victoria and NSW has reported “encouraging downward trends”. South Australia currently has five active cases.
The move to increase restrictions with South Australia comes after a fifth person was linked to the growing cluster — a restaurant at the Greek on Halifax, which has been named as a “potential superspreader” exposure site.
Victoria’s lockdown will continue until July 27 and Mr Gutwein said Tasmania’s border with that state will remain closed until at least then.
Director of Public Health Dr Mark Veitch said NSW’s continuing community transmission was still a cause for concern.
He said people should expect there to be community transmission in NSW “for at least a couple of weeks”, although the situation in Victoria’s containment appeared better.