Level Four coronavirus restrictions are being introduced in Adelaide after two people tested positive.
An 81-year-old Adelaide man has sparked the city’s first Covid scare in months after testing positive following a trip to Argentina with his daughter, who has now also been confirmed to have the virus.
The shock cases prompted Premier Steven Marshall to bring in tough new restrictions, including a ban on indoor dining and mandatory masks indoors.
Private gathering at home will be capped at 10, non-essential retail will close and all gyms and contact sport will stop.
Masks are required at indoor public locations, and working from home is strongly encouraged.
The restrictions begin at midnight and are set to continue until Friday, but Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said ‘this is not a lockdown’.
‘We need to restrict movement in the community,’ he said.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall (pictured) says the new case is likely to lead to tougher local virus restrictions but officials say they are not considering a major lockdown
Mr Marshall said: ‘We’ve only got one chance to get this right. We are very concerned. We are treating this as the Delta variant. We are going to go hard and go early.’
The elderly man turned up at South Australia’s Modbury Hospital over the weekend with virus symptoms, despite quarantining in NSW for 14 days on his return to Australia.
The elderly man also spent a further 10 days in a NSW hospital after injuring himself in a fall while in quarantine before returning to SA on July 8.
The Adelaide hospital’s emergency unit has now been closed and put into lockdown while deep cleaning takes place.
His daughter and grandson are also now in quarantine but have tested negative.
The infected man turned up at South Australia’s Modbury Hospital (pictured) over the weekend with virus symptoms, despite quarantining in NSW for 14 days on his return to Australia.
The alert has also closed the boy’s school. Elizabeth Vale Primary School in Modbury was closed on Monday as a precaution, said health officials.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall says the new case is likely to lead to tougher local virus restrictions but officials say they are not considering a major lockdown at this stage.
The man had received one vaccine dose while in Argentina, but it was not known what type, said Mr Marshall.
His daughter and 15 other close contacts have been placed in quarantine, with both the woman and her son so far testing negative.
Other test results are still pending.
‘We don’t draw any conclusions as to where this infection came from. We simply don’t know and it is very early days,’ Mr Marshall said.
‘Our primary concern at the moment is putting everyone who may have come into contact with this person into quarantine as soon as possible.’
Mr Marshall said the emergency department at Modbury Hospital remained closed while a risk assessment was performed and would be progressively opened when it was safe to do so.
Some staff have been placed in quarantine.
The premier said the Elizabeth Vale Primary School would also reopen on Tuesday after being closed on Monday.
The alert has also closed the boy’s school,Elizabeth Vale Primary School in Modbury (pictured) was closed on Monday as a precaution, said health officials
Elizabeth Vale Primary School in Modbury (pictured) was closed on Monday as a precaution, said health officials
The school was closed as a precaution while checks were made to ensure the elderly man’s grandson didn’t attend over the two-week holiday period.
Mr Marshall said despite serious concern over the new case, people should not panic.
‘We are not considering a lockdown at this stage. We don’t want a lockdown if we can avoid it.’
Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said officials were assuming the man had the Delta variant of the disease, though that was yet to be confirmed.
She said it was known the Delta strain could ‘spread like wildfire’.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said it was very likely South Australians would be hit with higher COVID-19 restrictions on Monday but exactly what they would be was yet to be determined.
He said there were no expected changes to border rules with people from Victoria, NSW and the ACT currently banned from entering the state.
SA Health have identified four exposures sites in the city’s north-east and ordered anyone there at these times to isolate for 14 days, notify them and get tested on days one, five and 13.
Modbury: Commonwealth Bank – Tuesday July 13, 10:00am-11:15am and Wednesday July 14, 10:30am–12:15pm
St Agnes: Aldi – Tuesday July 13, 10.20 am to 11.30 am
Hindmarsh: Gaganis Bros – Friday July 16, 1:00pm–2:30pm
Golden Grove: OPSM – Saturday, July 17, 3pm–3:45pm