Tougher restrictions come into force from midnight after an 81-year-old man and his daughter tested positive to Covid-19 – with authorities treating it as the highly infectious Delta strain.
A third case has now been revealed – a man in his 50s, a close contact of the 81-year-old man. SA recorded five new cases in total on Monday, two from overseas.
Private gathering will be capped at 10, all non-essential retail must close and gyms and team and contact sport must stop. Masks are required indoors and working from home is strongly encouraged. Weddings and funerals are capped at 10, while only outdoor dining and seated drinking is allowed.
Q&A: What the new restrictions mean
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.
The restrictions come after the man tested positive at 2.30am at Modbury Hospital in the northeastern suburbs on Sunday, putting its emergency department in lockdown. The man and his daughter were active in the community.
His daughter, in her 50s, initially tested negative but later tested positive and is now in a stable condition in Tom’s Court medi-hotel. Five other tests of the man’s close contacts are negative.
Premier Steven Marshall said SA would go to Level 4 restrictions from midnight tonight.
“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.”
RESTRICTIONS ANNOUNCED:
■ Home gatherings reduced now to 10 in Adelaide – including funerals and weddings.
■ Density for licensed premises back to 1 per 4 sqm or 25 per cent capacity, from a current 75 per cent.
■ Non-essential retail must close. Hardware stores, pharmacies, health services, schools and offices will remain open.
■ People encouraged to work from home where they can.
■ No team, club or contact sport.
■ Masks for all high-risk settings, including on public transport and indoors where you cannot keep to 1.5m apart.
■ Gyms must close.
■ Restrictions remain on singing and dancing.
■ Outdoor dining only.
■ No communal consumption facilities.
■ Dancing banned.
■ No buffets in licensed premises.
■ Shisha sharing at Shisha bars banned.
All restrictions will be reviewed on Friday. For more detail, go here
