South Australia appears to be on track to exit a week-long lockdown after no serious escalation in the number of COVID-19 cases in the state in the past 24 hours.
The state’s coronavirus transition committee will meet on Monday before an expected government news conference about 11am when residents will be informed of the next steps.
SA Premier Steven Marshall told Adelaide radio 5AA on Monday there had been no “serious” escalation in cases overnight on Sunday, although SA Health did identify a new exposure site linked to a positive case in Elizabeth Park.
“A lot of people (were) going through a huge amount of pain over the last week,” he said.
The seven-day lockdown was imposed at 6pm last Tuesday.
SA reported three new COVID-19 cases on Sunday but because they were all in quarantine there was no immediate threat to the lockdown exit timetable.
“It is very clear to me that South Australians are taking this lockdown order very, very seriously,” Mr Marshall said on Sunday.
“We want to come out on Tuesday and the actions of all South Australians are speaking volumes. Thank you very much.”
SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said one of the cases reported on Sunday was a returned traveller, a young child of a parent who had already tested positive.
There were two cases associated with the Modbury Hospital cluster, bringing the number of infections linked to that cluster to 18.
One is a woman in her 40s and the other is a man in his 70s.
“He was quarantining at home, he lives alone and so when we got the result through he was contacted and he has now been transferred to (the Tom’s Court medi-hospital),” Professor Spurrier said.
The cluster in SA began with an 81-year-old man who recently arrived in Australia from Argentina and was quarantined in Sydney before travelling to Adelaide, where he tested positive.
Genomic testing has confirmed the man became infected while in Sydney, not while he was in Argentina.
AAP
