[ad_1]
The state government says strict measures are needed to control contact tracing and testing.
South Australia on Wednesday announced a six-day “circuit breaker” lockout for the state’s nearly two million residents as it moved to contain a surge in coronavirus cases that ended months with hardly any infections.
A series of far-reaching restrictions will be imposed from midnight to allow for a “respite” measure for contact tracing, South Australian State Prime Minister Steven Marshall said after 22 cases of the virus were reported. in Adelaide, the state capital.
“We need this circuit breaker, this community break,” he said. “This is a pause in South Australia for us to stay ahead of the virus,” he said.
“We go hard and we go early. Time is of the essence and we must act quickly and decisively ”.
Public Health Director Nicola Spurrier noted that the particular strain of virus involved in the latest outbreak had a “very, very short incubation period,” and that it could take only 24 hours or less for an exposed person to become infected.
He said the measures would give the state of 1.8 million people time to stop the chain of transmission.
“I can’t make this decision in two or three weeks or even two or three days because it will be too late,” he said.
South Australian Prime Minister Steven Marshall says the six-day lockdown will allow authorities to control contact tracing and wipe out a cluster of infections that began in the hotel’s quarantine. [Kelly Barnes/EPA]
The new rules will go into effect at midnight and will require the closure of all schools, restaurants and factories.
Stay-at-home orders will be issued to residents across the state, and only one person from each household will be allowed to leave each day for essential purposes.
Anyone leaving their home will have to wear a mask.
Residential homes for the elderly and disabled will be closed and all weddings and funerals will be suspended.
The latest outbreak is related to an Australian who arrived in the state capital, Adelaide, from abroad on November 2 and entered mandatory quarantine at a hotel. A cleaner is believed to have contracted the virus after touching a contaminated surface and two security guards at the facility were also diagnosed with the virus.
Two new cases linked to the cluster were announced on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the state since the pandemic began to 551. There is concern that the latest outbreak has the potential to infect high-risk populations, with workers care and a prison guard among those who test positive.
The announcement sparked long lines at COVID-19 testing centers and a rush to supermarkets where toilet paper rolls quickly sold out.
The outbreak has sparked panic buying in Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia. [Kelly Barnes/EPA]This is already the line for the records. No more toilet paper. Tissues, meat, eggs almost out. @ 9ewsAdel @ 9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/m5Wm6TbwhI
– Bryce Heaton (@ bryceheaton9) November 18, 2020
Elsewhere in Australia, the state of Victoria, which was the epicenter of the country’s nearly 28,000 cases until last month and where people in Melbourne endured weeks of strict lockdown and curfew, marked its 19th consecutive day without reporting a new case.
New South Wales reported zero local and seven imported cases.
Other states in Australia have already imposed new quarantine rules on anyone traveling from South Australia as a result of the outbreak in the state.
[ad_2]
