'Delay your travel': NSW hardens stance on SA outbreak
By Josh Dye and Tom Rabe
November 18, 2020 — 9.18am
NSW has hardened its stance on travel to and from South Australia, issuing advice to avoid unnecessary trips until the Adelaide COVID-19 outbreak is under control.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was confident South Australia had the virus under control but urged people to delay travel plans.
Gladys Berejiklian says travel plans to South Australia should be delayed. Credit:Rhett Wyman
Her advice follows Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania imposing restrictions on travellers when the Parafield cluster in Adelaide grew to 17 cases on Monday. Victoria has issued similar warnings, with its Health Minister Martin Foley adding that truck drivers would be tested once they cross into Victoria.
By Tuesday night there were 21 cases, but the South Australian Premier flagged the "very likely" prospect of 14 new cases being confirmed later on Wednesday morning.
Ms Berejiklian said the new advice about travel to South Australia was a precautionary measure.
"If you don't have to go there in the next few days, delay your travel," she said.
"The borders are completely open but if it's non-essential travel, think about whether you want to go in the next few days.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said passengers arriving on flights from Adelaide were being quizzed at the airport.
"I've asked the NSW Health authorities to step up the surveillance. So whenever a flight comes in now, we're doing [a] full check, asking where people are going. We want to be able to track people and talk to them about the issues," he said.
Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said the initial detection of the Adelaide cluster was fortunate.
"In South Australia, we did get lucky," Dr Moy told the Today show.
"The reason why the virus was picked up was because of the conscientious nature of a doctor who insisted a patient get tested. We might have got extremely lucky despite the top notch response."
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall told Adelaide radio station 5AA that it was possible more restrictions would be imposed on South Australians on Wednesday as authorities race to squash the outbreak.
On Tuesday returned overseas travellers staying in Adelaide's Peppers Waymouth Hotel had their 14-day quarantine extended.
Four thousand people are in self-isolation after being identified as possible close contacts with confirmed cases.
There are long queues for testing with one woman telling talkback radio she waited seven hours for a test on Tuesday.
Ms Berejiklian said she returned a negative COVID-19 test on Tuesday as NSW recorded its 11th day in a row without locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. There were seven cases in hotel quarantine.
Victoria has reached 19 consecutive days without a single case of COVID-19.
Ms Berejiklian again criticised the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for keeping the state closed to Sydneysiders.
"Unfortunately I haven't heard a single thing from Queensland. I don't think any of their decisions make sense, and if I did speak to them I don't think I'd get any sense out of them," she said.
"Tonight they're having 100 per cent capacity, no social distancing, for their State of Origin match, yet they didn't even allow our players to go up a few days early to acclimatise.
"What other states are doing is hurting Australia, hurting citizens, and I just urge everybody to have a bit of guts and courage and trust their systems."
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Brad Hazzard
Josh Dye
Josh Dye is a news reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.
Tom Rabe
Tom Rabe is Transport Reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.