South Australia goes into six-day COVID-19 lockdown

South Australia will be ordered into a major lockdown for six days in what the Government is describing as a “circuit breaker”.

People will be restricted from going outside of their homes — only one person per household will be able to leave the home each day, but only for specific purposes.

From midnight tonight, for the next six days, all schools, takeaway food, and the construction industry will close and exercise will be banned outside the house.

Masks will be required in all areas outside of the home.

Universities, pubs, cafes, elective surgeryand all outdoor sport will be closed. Weddings and funerals will be banned.

Urgent operations and cancer treatment will be allowed to go ahead. Critical infrastructure such as water, electricity and telecommunications will remain open, as will supermarkets.

Medical, including mental health support, will be open, as will public transport.

SA Premier Steven Marshall said the measures are a necessary “circuit breaker” to allow for a contact tracing blitz on cases linked to the Parafield cluster.

“We continue to face our biggest test to date,” he said.

“We can, and we must, rise to this challenge.”

There have been two new cases of coronavirus cases in SA, both linked to the Parafield cluster.

Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said the particular strain of the virus is breeding “very, very rapidly” with a short incubation period of about 24 hours, and with infected people showing only minimal symptoms.

Professor Spurrier said authorities have acted to shut down the community now, because waiting any longer would see South Australians incur similar lockdowns to Victoria.

Other restrictions over the next six days will include temporarily banning fly-in-fly-out work, regional travel and the rental of holiday homes.

Aged care and disability residential facilities will be in lockdown.

Sourced By: ABC News